Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, worries a bill designed to protect the Grand Canyon could scuttle Western irrigation projects or dramatically increase electricity rates in the rural West.
The Grand Canyon Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would require the secretary of the interior to regulate water releases from the Glen Canyon Dam to give highest priority to protection of the Grand Canyon - not sales of hydroelectric power from the Glen Canyon Dam.Environmental groups and others have complained that flows fluctuating greatly beneath the dam to meet peak hydroelectric power demands have eroded half the Colorado River's beaches, damaged archaeological sites and endangered fish.
Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan has ordered an environmental impact statement on how to best balance flows, and has ordered interim flow changes, beginning Nov. 1, to limit environmental damage.
Garn complains McCain's bill and a sister bill in the House would create severe revenue losses from reduced hydroelectric sales. That money goes to help build irrigation projects, including some that are part of the Central Utah Project.
He said the only way to make up for such revenue losses would be to raise hydroelectric rates from Western dams, which is purchased mainly by power companies serving cities in rural areas.
"Glen Canyon Dam has produced a revenue stream of approximately $55 million annually. The cost of operating the dam at less than its full potential could cost as much as one third of that total each year," Garn said in a statement submitted to the Senate Energy Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks and Forests.
He added that if such money cannot be made up, "I can see many anti-irrigation project critics along with the Office of Management and Budget salivating at the prospect of closing Western irrigation down for lack of repayment revenues."
But he warned, "I have not devoted 25 years of my public life to completing the CUP, including its irrigation features, only to look the other way now while somebody dismantles the Colorado River Storage Project funding mechanism under the guise of protecting the Grand Canyon.
"No way can I do that in good conscience," he said.
However, David Marcus, an energy consultant testifying for the Grand Canyon Trust - a coalition of environmental groups - said flow changes caused by the bill would be only about $3 million a year. He said that is a small cost to protect the Grand Canyon.
McCain also said his bill is needed to ensure protection of the Grand Canyon is given the highest priority regardless of who is president or secretary of the interior.
"The Grand Canyon needs and deserves the permanent protection afforded by the Grand Canyon Protection Act," McCain said.