Dave Wegner, the scientist who studied the Grand
Canyon ecosystem for more than a decade, said he thinks Glen Canyon
Dam is just one of many that could go.
“I’d take
out Glen Canyon. I’d take out Flaming Gorge. And I’d look at Navajo
Dam on the San Juan River,” he said, while attending the American
Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco. Wegner recently
quit the Bureau of Reclamation, charging that its commitment to
restore river ecosystems in the West was faltering (HCN,
12/23/96).
The idea is now on the table. Some
scientists agree with Wegner’s approach. Last year, the Sierra Club
called for removal of Glen Canyon Dam.
“Dam
removal is not a totally insane idea,” said Jack Schmidt, a Utah
State University geographer, although he cautioned that all the
trade-offs had to be looked at. But Schmidt added: “Flaming Gorge
is the first dam I’d like to take out.”
* Lee
Siegel
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Down with dams?.
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