OCR Text |
Show Lake Powell Fills After Seventeen Years out of a Federal fund in either money or energy for the losses in electrical generation at Hoover Dam caused by the "retention of water in Lake Powell. The Upper Basin interests in-terests had feared that dry years might delay the filling of Powell indefinitely. in-definitely. When the level of the lake reached 3700 feet on June 22 with some 25 million acre-feet of water in active storage behind the dam, those ' fears experienced a very wet death. The magnificent lake with 1900 miles of shoreline is a top tourist attraction in Garfield and Kane counties for its outstanding out-standing recreational activities. Seventeen years, three months and nine days after the gates of the newly completed Glen Canyon Dam were closed, Lake Powell filled for the first time at 10:43 p.m. on June 22, 1980. The Colorado River Association reported in a recent newsletter the significant event which occurred just 24 years after President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed a button setting off the first blast that marked the start of construction. The event marked a milestone for the management plans for the Upper and Lower Colorado River basins by automatically terminating ter-minating the filling criteria a matter of bitter contention between the two basins according to the Association. Under the criteria set forth by the Secretary of the Interior in 1962 just prior to completion of the dam, the Upper Basin was required to compensate com-pensate the Lower Basin |