Without delivering a judgment on the decades-old controversy over the building of Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of Lake Powell, one can still assert this much: the beauty of Lake Powell is not a warm and fuzzy, lush meadows, twittering birds and puffy clouds kind of beauty.
It's a stark, striking landscape born of tension among the elements, including the influence of man. Water and land are in a perpetual standoff, the lake's shores lapping away at a waterline it took 17 years to reach, once the dam was complete.
Massive sandstone formations jut defiantly out of the middle of the water, and fingers of the lake probe indiscreetly into the depths of canyons, where weird sandstone sculptures are endlessly carved by the wind. The blue of the sky is aggressively vivid in the limited palette of reds and browns. It's the harsh beauty of a supermodel in minimalist haute couture, not the girl next door in a gingham dress.
Lake Powell was formed in 1963 by the Glen Canyon Dam, which is part of a system that delivers water and electricity to an estimated 27 million people all over the West. The lake currently holds about 11.5 million acre-feet of water, at 47% of its capacity, which has decreased dramatically in the last five years due to the recent drought in the Southwest.
The dam's existence was challenged from the very beginning by naturalists and other concerned citizens who worried about the effect on wildlife all along the Colorado River and the destruction of important geological and archaeological structures now submerged in Glen Canyon. Ecologists point to indications that the dam has significantly changed the make-up of aquatic and riparian life not just in the immediate vicinity of the dam and Lake Powell, but as far away as the Grand Canyon portion of the Colorado River. Other opponents of the dam's existence cite the inefficiency of the water containment system and the projected difficulty in generating power should the current drought continue. There are those who go so far as to propose the decommissioning of the dam, and an equally avid group of activists who want to protect the economic value of the dam and lake both as water and power sources as well as recreational and tourist attractions for Arizona and Utah.
