Show The erter i iThe The golden beaver By Kenneth L. L Gray PhD Ph.D. Article 6 Some of the royalties and fees extracted from the interior colony are eventually returned to the West when reclamation projects such as dams are financed With congressional approval the Bureau of Reclamation sometimes uses the money to build dams in the West However the investment is again returned to Washington D. D C C. C in the form of wat water use use r-use fees and electricity bills once the dams are completed completed com com- The Bureau of Reclamation BuRec is responsible for engineering wonders such as Hoover Dam Glen CanyonDam CanyonDam Canyon CanyonDam Dam and Grand Coulee Dam un unfortunately f 0 r tun ate 1 y the their i r wastefulness is also on a grand scale ALTHOUGH AL THE rUE Bureau of of Reclamation had planned to build the Werner Warner Valley DamAnd Dam Damand Damand and Reservoir in Southern Utah this bec became me one of their many many projects which failed to materialize Fearing that BuRec might nev never never r build this project officials of the city ity of St. St George retained a Utah Utah- based engineering firm to build th the Warner Valley Dam for less than half the BuRec price tag Waste on such a sc scale le is typical of the Bureau of Reclamation but intolerable under local and private control The Gunlock Dam in Southern Utah is another example of adam a adam adam dam built at a cost far less than BuRec's estimate BuRec abandoned the Gunlock Dam plan as economically infeasible infeasible yet et it is now providing inexpensive inexpensive inex inex- pensive water and recreational opportunities for Southern Utah residents AS IF their w wasteful st ful record in dam b building were not sufficient sufficient suf suf- suf BuRec has also been in inthe inthe inthe the business of building and operating a town Page Arizona named by BuRec after their former director John C. C Page was established in 1957 and remained under federal control until 1975 For this 18 year period the Bureau of Reclamation mation regional director living and working in Salt Lake City was nick named by I his staff stare the Mayor of Page This Mayors office was miles from his city There is reason to believe that funding to support Page was grossly mismanaged Major discrepancies are obvious when Page expenditures are compared com com- compared pared to locally controlled cities of similar size Brigham City Utah Utah for example spent per person on municipal expenditures ex in 1971 and Tooele Utah recorded a per person expense For the 15 year 15 ear period from 1960 to 1975 Page operation and maintenance expenses per person averaged per year See figure above THE TilE HIGH for one year was per person In most cities when the population fluctuates municipal expenditures ex must also fluctuate to reflect the changing tax base When the population of Page fluctuated this was not reflected In municipal ex Furthermore there Is no evidence that these high ex expenses produced a superior city maintained an excessive number of em em- Since the plateau in Utah is only 30 miles from Page the planned coal mines and el electricity plant could have helped Page citizens However the Bureau of Land Management t repeatedly delayed authorization of the project even while unemployed construction construction con con- workers in Page were waiting to begin work As construction on the Navaho Fired Coal-Fired Electricity Plant near Page was completed the population of Page began to decrease In April 1975 for Cor example the population of Page decreased by persons which represented a loss of nine percent of the entire population n of the city in one one month Many of these workers had wished to remain in Page to work on the the Project and I others remained though unemployed The highest perc percentage of unemployed were fr the in-the the n nearby rb Navaho Indian Indian- R Reservation IF THE TilE construction of the Navaho Plant and the Plant had been synchronized several undesirable undesirable un un- un desirable imp impacts could have been avoided The avoided The population of the area area would have b been en more more stable ther thereby b creating a sound base for urban economic growth unemployment of the Navahos would have been lower less government and private expense would have been required to train train and recruit workers for the Project and social economic and arid psychological costs of uprooting families could have been avoided Ironically while e the Bureau of Larid Land Management was engrossed in writing the Environmental Impact Statement for the Project delays in development which caused resulted in adverse social impacts If unwarranted delays in development could result in reduction of adverse environmental environmental en impacts actions I would not be entirely unproductive to the contrary however delay often causes adv adverse impacts as the history of the Project in relation to Page Arizona reveals IMPROVEMENTS IN developmental planning and the elimination of wasteful practices practices tices cannot be expected until political power is returned to the people and local representatives since they have the most to gain or lose Whenever r the people lose control of the public business the cost of that business is likely to Inflate as agencies become more concerned with their own desires regardless of the needs of the communities and residents Interior Department officials often allege that Interior Department agencies work closely to coordinate efforts However activities in and around Page indicate that Interior Department j mismanagement Is a critical problem As each agency seeks its own well being and ignores the will of the people lack of ot local control results in colossal waste and social problems as PS is documented In the files of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau Dureau of Land Management Copyright Kenneth L. L Gray 1976 Next weeks week's article The Chain Gang deals with grazing administration and nd land management philosophy |