Glen Canyon/Lake Powell, Utah and Arizona

Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Photo by John Grahame

Glen Canyon Dam is on the Colorado River in far north-central Arizona near the Arizona-Utah state line. Completed in 1963, it is the fourth highest dam in the country with a structural height of 710 feet.

Lake Powell, the reservoir impounded by the dam, has a total storage capacity of 27,000,000 acre-feet and extends 186 miles up the Colorado River, making it the second largest reservoir in the country. Lake Powell  provides the water storage needed to permit the states of the Upper Colorado River Basin to use their apportioned water and still meet their flow obligations at Lees Ferry, Arizona, under the terms of the 1922 Compact of the Colorado River. A hydroelectric power plant at Glen Canyon Dam provides the principal portion of the electrical energy generated by the Colorado River Storage Project. The power plant has eight generating units providing a total generating capacity of 1,042,000 kilowatts.

The construction of Glen Canyon Dam occurred only after a major battle between those who wanted to preserve the Colorado River's ecologic and scenic qualities versus those who felt the river's water was being wasted. The demand for water in the arid region of the Colorado Plateau and Southwest is high, and some felt that the river could be put to better use by diverting water for power generation and agricultural and urban uses. A compromise was crafted which allowed Glen Canyon Dam to be built while another possible dam site at Echo Park along the Green River (now in Dinosaur National Monument) was spared.

The flooding of hundreds of miles of the Colorado and its tributary canyons in the area eliminated much of this arid region's native riparian habitat. The Lake Powell shoreline is now dominated by exotic tamarisk and semi-desert scrub. Recreational opportunities for power boaters have increased, while endangered native fish species have declined or disappeared.

Bullfrog Marina, Lake Powell. Photo © 1999 Ray Wheeler.

Long before the dam drowned this stretch of the Colorado River, Major John Wesley Powell described the striking canyon on an expedition in 1869. Powell saw "a curious ensemble of wonderful features-carved walls, royal arches, glens, alcove gulches, mounds, and monuments." Today the loss of these features is mourned by Western conservationists, some of whom have embarked on a crusade to try to persuade Congress to decommission the dam and slowly return Glen Canyon to its natural state.

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