Difference between revisions of "Grand Canyon Protection Act"

(a) Interim Operations. -- Pending compliance by the Secretary with section 1804, the Secretary shall, on an interim basis, continue to operate Glen Canyon Dam under the Secretary's announced interim operating criteria and the Interagency Agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Western Area Power Administration executed October 2, 1991 and exercise other authorities under existing law, in accordance with the standards set forth in Section 1802, utilizing the best and most recent scientific data available.

(b) Consultation. -- The Secretary shall continue to implement Interim Operations in consultation with--

• Appropriate agencies of the Department of the Interior, including the Bureau of Reclamation, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service;

• The Secretary of Energy;

• The Governors of the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming;

• Indian Tribes; and

• The general public, including representatives of the academic and scientific communities, environmental organizations, the recreation industry, and contractors for the purchase of Federal power produced at Glen Canyon Dam.

(c) Deviation From Interim Operations. -- The Secretary may deviate from Interim Operations upon a finding that deviation is necessary and in the public interest to --

• comply with the requirements of Section 1804(a);

• respond to hydrologic extremes or power system operation emergencies;

• comply with the standards set forth in Section 1802;

• respond to advances in scientific data; or

• comply with the terms of the Interagency Agreement.

(d) Termination of Interim Operations. -- Interim operations described in this section shall terminate upon compliance by the Secretary with Section 1804.

(a) Final Environmental Impact Statement. -- Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall complete a final Glen Canyon Dam environmental impact statement, in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et. seq.).

(b) Audit. -- The Comptroller General shall--

• audit the costs and benefits to water and power users and to natural, recreational, and cultural resources resulting from management policies and dam operations identified pursuant to the environmental impact statement described in subsection (a); and

• report the results of the audit to the Secretary and the Congress.

(c) Adoption of Criteria and Plans. --

• Based on the findings, conclusions, and recommendations made in the environmental impact statement prepared pursuant to subsection (a) and the audit performed pursuant to subsection (b), the Secretary shall --

-adopt criteria and operating plans separate from and in addition to those specified in section 602(b) of the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 and

-exercise other authorities under existing law, so as to ensure that Glen Canyon Dam is operated in a manner consistent with section 1802.

• Each year after the date of the adoption of criteria and operating plans pursuant to paragraph (1), the Secretary shall transmit to the Congress and to the Governors of the Colorado River Basin States a report, separate from and in addition to the report specified in section 602(b) of the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 on the preceding year and the projected year operations undertaken pursuant to this Act.

• In preparing the criteria and operating plans described in section 602(b) of the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 and in this subsection, the Secretary shall consult with the Governors of the Colorado River Basin States and with the general public, including--

-representatives of academic and scientific communities;

-environmental organizations;

-the recreation industry; and

-contractors for the purchase of Federal power produced at Glen Canyon Dam.

(d) Report to Congress. --Upon implementation of long-term operations under subsection (c), the Secretary shall submit to the Congress the environmental impact statement described in subsection (a) and a report describing the long-term operations and other reasonable mitigation measures taken to protect, mitigate adverse impacts to, and improve the condition of the natural recreational, and cultural resources of the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam.

(e) Allocation of Costs. --The Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, is directed to reallocate the costs of construction, operation, maintenance, replacement and emergency expenditures for Glen Canyon Dam among the purposes directed in section 1802 of this Act and the purposes established in the Colorado River Storage Project Act of April 11, 1956 (70 Stat. 170). Costs allocated to section 1802 purposes shall be nonreimbursable. Except that in Fiscal Year 1993 through 1997 such costs shall be nonreimbursable only to the extent to which the Secretary finds the effect of all provisions of this Act is to increase net offsetting receipts; Provided, further that if the Secretary finds in any such year that the enactment of this Act does cause a reduction net offsetting receipts generated by all provisions of this Act, the costs allocated to section 1802 purposes shall remain nonreimbursable. The Secretary shall determine the effect of all the provisions of this Act and submit a report to the appropriate House and Senate committees by January 31 of each fiscal year, and such report shall contain for that fiscal year a detailed accounting of expenditures incurred pursuant to this Act, offsetting receipts generated by this Act, and nay increase or reduction in net offsetting receipts generated by this Act.

(a) In General. --The Secretary shall establish and implement long-term monitoring programs and activities that will ensure that Glen Canyon Dam is operated in a manner consistent with that of section 1802.

(b) Research. -- Long-term monitoring of Glen Canyon Dam shall include any necessary research and studies to determine the effect of the Secretary's actions under section 1804(c) on the natural, recreational, and cultural resources of Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

(c) Consultation. -- The monitoring programs and activities conducted under subsection (a) shall be established and implemented in consultation with--

• the Secretary of Energy;

• the Governors of the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming;

• Indian tribes; and

• the general public, including representatives of academic and scientific communities, environmental organizations, the recreation industry, and contractors for the purchase of Federal power produced at Glen Canyon Dam.

Nothing in this title is intended to affect in any way--

(1) the allocations of water secured to the Colorado Basin States by any compact, law, or decree; or

(2) any Federal environmental law, including the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).

All costs of preparing the environmental impact statement described in section 1804, including supporting studies, and the long-term monitoring programs and activities described in section 1805 shall be nonreimbursable. The Secretary is authorized to use funds received from the sale of electric power and energy from the Colorado River Storage Project to prepare the environmental impact statement described in section 1804, including supporting studies, and the long-term monitoring programs and activities described in section 1805, except that such funds will be treated as having been repaid and returned to the general fund of the Treasury as costs assigned to power for repayment under section 5 of the Act of April 11, 1956 (70 Stat. 170). Except that in Fiscal Year 1993 through 1997 such provisions shall take effect only to the extent to which the Secretary finds the effect of all the provisions of this Act is to increase net offsetting receipts; Provided, further that if the Secretary finds in any such year that the enactment of this Act does cause a reduction in net offsetting receipts generated by all provisions of this Act, all costs described in this section shall remain nonreimbursable. The Secretary shall determine the effect of all the provisions of this Act and submit a report to the appropriate House and Senate committees by January 31 of each fiscal year, and such report shall contain for that fiscal year a detailed accounting of expenditures incurred pursuant to this Act, offsetting receipts generated by this Act, and any increase or reduction in net offsetting receipts generated by this Act.

There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this title.

The Secretary of Energy in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior and with representatives of the Colorado River Storage Project power customers, environmental organizations and the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming shall identify economically and technically feasible methods of replacing any power generation that is lost through adoption of long-term operational criteria for Glen Canyon Dam as required by Section 1804 of this title. The Secretary shall present a report of the findings, and implementing draft legislation, if necessary, not later than two years after adoption of long-term operating criteria. The Secretary shall include an investigation of the feasibility of adjusting operations at Hoover Dam to replace all or part of such lost generation. The Secretary shall include an investigation of the modifications or additions to the transmission system that may be required to acquire and deliver replacement power.

• 2012 Desired Future Conditions
• The Law of the River
• The Colorado River Compact of 1922
• The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of 1948
• The Water Treaty of 1944 with Mexico
• The decree of the Supreme Court in Arizona v. California of 1964
• The Colorado River Basin Project
• 1996 Letter: Financial Aspects of the Grand Canyon Protection Act - Nonreimbursablity Letter

It is quite clear that when Congress enacted the Grand Canyon Protection Act of 1992, 106 Stat. 4669 (GCPA), it intended to maintain all that had gone before the Compacts, the Park units, and Glen Canyon Dam downstream NPS resources without interfering with the "Law of the River," including compact and treaty obligations for water delivery (GCPA, section 1802(a) and (b)).

The Senate Report on the bill puts it quite simply: The primary purpose of this title is to authorize changes in the operation of Glen Canyon Dam to prevent damage to downstream resources, principally the dam's power operations. The Secretary's responsibilities for water storage, allocation and delivery act as limits on the Secretary's discretion in implementing the GCPA. It is also clear that Congress understood that these objectives would have certain costs in the form of lost incremental hydropower generating opportunity (GCPA, section 1809) and that the existence of the dam was to be taken as a given.

The basic question Congress was addressing was how Glen Canyon Dam operations might be modified within the provisions of existing law so as to improve conditions for downstream NPS resources (with similar benefits certainly occurring on other similarly situated lands). The GCPA itself does not direct consideration of cultural resources within the boundaries of Native American reservations, only "the values for which Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area were established," although all federal agencies have similar obligations under other law. The entire adaptive management program (AMP), including the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center and the Adaptive Management Work Group, must be understood within this context. In accordance with section 1804 of the GCPA, the EIS was conducted to attempt to find an answer to that question, and the 1996 ROD was the Department's best first answer. Recognizing that more experience and knowledge with operations might enable further refinements in operations and might further improve downstream resource conditions, however, Congress added section 1805 to the GCPA. This section required the Secretary to "establish and implement long-term monitoring programs and activities that will ensure that Glen Canyon Dam is operated in a manner consistent with section 1802," namely, "to protect, mitigate adverse impacts to, and improve the values for which Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area were established," within the parameters of other applicable law and the physical constraints of the dam. Accordingly, the Department included in the EIS and in the ROD the provisions setting up the AMP, thereby allowing for further refinement of and changes to dam operations to better meet the GCPA objectives.

The charge given to the AMWG in its Charter is to "facilitate the AMP, recommend suitable monitoring and research programs, and make recommendations to the Secretary as required to meet the requirements of the Act. The scope of the AMWG responsibility, therefore, is to identify aspects of dam operations that can be modified to beneficially affect the downstream resources identified as the focus of study (i.e. "the target") in the EIS. This covers flow rates, ramping rates, periodicity of peak flows, monitoring sediment input rates and the relation of sediment movement to water release and ramping rates, chemical content and temperature of releases, among possible others --any aspect of dam operations, in other words, which has a reasonably demonstrable effect on the downstream resources sought to be improved by the GCPA. The key to the scope of AMWG's responsibilities is whether a specific desired resource effect downstream of the dam can be achieved through some manipulation of dam operations. Under the ROD, the upper limit of planned release level is 45,000 cfs. Long-term monitoring and research, including test flows within the current range of authorized operations, are intended to enable finer and finer tuning of operations over time, as additional knowledge and experience are gained, to better achieve the target mix of resource benefits, as outlined in the EIS, pages 54-65. [1]