Ed Quillen

Art Goodtimes created quite a stir a few days ago when he announced that Club 20 should henceforth be known as Club 19. Art’s been a friend for years. He’s a poet and for the past decade or so, he has served as a San Miguel County commissioner. And as far as I know, he’s the only elected Green Party officeholder in Colorado.

He was also an officer in Club 20, which bills itself as “the voice of the Western Slope” in Colorado. Its membership ranges from individuals and corporations to counties and two Ute nations. That’s a diverse group; just the counties range from Democratic upscale resort zones like Pitkin County (its seat is Aspen) to Republican cattle-and-mining areas like Moffat County (Craig).

Basically, Art said the extractive energy industry had taken over Club 20, and it no longer represented the interests of places like Telluride and San Miguel County. The best account I’ve read is on Colorado Confidential, and there’s no point in repeating it here.

When Club 20 started in 1954, its main goal was better roads on the Western Slope of Colorado. There were actually 21 counties involved, but “Club 21 sounded too much like a night spot,” then executive director Greg Walcher told me once, “so they made it Club 20.”
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Jonathan Thompson

Editor in Chief

She was about 20 years old when she hit the top of her game — loved by all, her future bright. Then, too much use and abuse led her on a downhill slide, so that in recent years she’s only been a mere shadow of her former self. Now, she may be on her way back up.

No. I’m not talking Britney Spears. I’m talking Lake Powell. Reservoir Powell to her detractors (and those who understand the proper definition of “lake” and “reservoir”). She was so high in 1983 that the Bureau of Reclamation had to essentially flush the lake, sending some 100,000 cubic feet of water each second down the Grand Canyon. Then, in the 90s, things went bad. There was a big drought. Lake Powell started tanking. Where once was lake, only a 100 foot bathtub ring remained. Now, a big winter has inspired news of a dramatic comeback: High snowpack will raise Powell by 50 feet!

So Powell is poised for a comeback. Or not. This rebirth’s likely to be about as successful as Britney’s comeback last fall. Fifty feet on top of currrent levels will still leave the reservoir far below capacity — look for a 60 to 70 foot bathtub ring during this summer’s peak levels. And unless the arid West is soggy this summer, Powell will plummet back to about 50 percent of capacity this fall. And yeah, we may get some flooding here and there, but the Grand Canyon will not relive the torrent of ‘83. Unless the dam breaks, that is.

Ernie Atencio

My ten-year-old son is building a sandcastle on a Colorado River beach at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Three weeks ago there was a lot less sand to work with, says the national park volunteer at the nearby campground. This beach and others received a fresh load of redistributed sediment from a flood through the canyon March 5-7. A banana peel and other recent debris hang in the willows about ten feet above the river.

This was not a flood caused by a big storm or sudden snowmelt or the wrath or God, but the simple pull of a lever at Glen Canyon Dam, Ariz. just upstream. Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne opened the spillways to increase the flow of the river to about 41,000 cubic feet of water per second (cfs). Three days later he shut it off. This is what passes for a flood these days, but doesn’t come close the natural floods of old. Park Ranger James on duty at Phantom Ranch refuses to call it a flood, but a “release.”

This is the third managed flood through Grand Canyon since 1996, intended to mimic natural flows that rebuild scarce beaches, quench high-water vegetation and restore breeding habitat for endangered fish. The 1992 Grand Canyon Protection Act and an Environmental Impact Statement 13 years in the making call for managing flows through the canyon to benefit the environment instead of solely based on hydropower generation needs (HCN 7/22/96).

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