Word: basin
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...years Western states have battled tempestuously over rights to the Colorado River's precious water. Now the Upper Basin states had a brand-new source of hydroelectric power, the $400 million Glen Canyon Dam near the Utah-Arizona border. Operation was scheduled to begin in June. But that had to be postponed, chiefly because the water level in Lake Powell behind the dam was insufficient to turn the generators. Members of the four-state Upper Basin Commission performed figurative rain dances, hoping that by August the lake would have accumulated the 6.5 million acre-feet of water necessary...
...Perfidy." Now enter Udall's Reclamation Commissioner Floyd E. Dominy, who looked downriver toward Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, major power source for the Lower Basin states of Arizona and California. Lake Mead, too, was suffering from a water shortage. After studying the stream flow forecasts, Dominy last month decided that Hoover Dam could not maintain the surface storage of 14.5 million acre-feet that it needs...
...this case, the Glen Canyon water flowed, at 18,000 cu. ft. per sec., 370 miles downriver to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. The water is still running, which is fine for the folks in Phoenix and Los Angeles. But the water loss to the Upper Basin is drying up Lake Powell, and with it the hopes there for new electric power in the near future...
...longtime Senator (1937-55) and Governor (1933-37; 1955-57), now a member of the commission. Johnson accused Udall of "perfidy" and "stupidity," quizzed Dominy for more than an hour, charged that the release of Glen Canyon's water was a breach of contract with the Upper Basin states and a waste of water as well, predicted that "given several dry years, the Upper Basin would not have a drop of water left...
Meanwhile, the plug will stay pulled, until next month at least, when Udall will study the newest spring water runoff figures. If he decides that Hoover still needs additional power, and if private groups cannot take on the job, the Upper Basin gates will stay open and Glen Canyon will go down the drain...