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For more information about the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and about training and career opportunities, please contact:

Undergraduate:
ugarec@ag.arizona.edu
Phone: (520) 621-6244

Graduate:
garec@ag.arizona.edu
Phone: (520) 621-2421

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Water Resources Research Center

Water Rights
Controversy Over Glen Canyon Dam

Glen Canyon Dam is located on the Colorado River in northern Arizona and forms Lake Powell. For the first several decades after the dam was completed in 1968, it was operated primarily to provide valuable hydro power to cities, farms, and industry around the Southwest. In the early 1980s, environmental organizations began to question the effects of running widely variable flows through the dam to generate hydro power at times of the day when customers use the most electricity.

Fish, wildlife, and recreationists along the stretch of river below the dam were affected by rapid changes in river levels and these effects began to seem unacceptable since the reach of the river below the dam is part of Grand Canyon National Park and contains endangered fish species. Along with hydrologists, biologists, and other experts, economists were called in to help identify the tradeoffs of different ways of operating the dam. The economists, working for federal agencies, environmental groups, power users, and other constituencies: 1) estimated the monetary value of downstream resources and damages caused by river fluctuations, 2) examined the economic impacts of changed power production at the dam, and 3) identified new ways to meet power needs in the region, including energy conservation.

In the mid-1990s, after more than a decade of studies and public debate, the federal government issued new rules for operating the dam. These rules limit how much river levels can vary and set a new balance between power generation and protection of other vital resources at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Faculty Involvement
Bonnie Colby served on a three-year National Research Council review team to ensure high quality scientific and economic studies of different ways to operate the dam.

Student Involvement
Kristine Crandall, M.S. graduate, operates her own economics consulting business, providing water management alternatives to government agencies and private sector clients.

Tom Arnold, M.S. Graduate, works for a large municipal water supplier helping them to understand the economic and rate payer implications of their water supply and water quality choices.

Additional Readings
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Final Environmental Impact Statement, Operation of Glen Canyon Dam. 1995.

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