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Show 30 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER Something was awry here. Electric power could be produced in Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque and Southern Arizona by steam for six mills. This meant that Glen Canyon power would have to be delivered in these places, far away from Glen Canyon, at 5.5 mills in order to be competitive. Perhaps Governor Pyle did not realize then that such difficult problems were lightly brushed aside by the planners of the Reclamation Bureau. Their attitude was: Get the project approved; the details can be worked out afterward. The Bureau planners simply continued to insist that Glen Canyon power was "cheaper power" no matter where it went, and let the matter drop. For a number of years Arizona had been dreaming of a great power dam at Bridge Canyon, on the Colo- rado River above Hoover Dam, for the exclusive use of Arizona, and in his complaint to the Bureau, Governor Pyle also mentioned that "early completion of construc- tion of the Bridge Canyon Project, so that operation could begin in 1956, should provide sufficient gener- ation to meet the estimated increased power market needs for Arizona by that time . . . Arizona must look to a portion of the output of Glen Canyon power plant to meet its probable needs after 1957. . ." 30 Either Governor Pyle didn't know what he was talking about, or the person who wrote to the Bureau of Reclamation for him was without any knowledge of the subject. Such statements could only be born of ignorance. In 1951, Congress had not passed on a pro- ject for Bridge Canyon, but even if consideration of it had begun then, the time required to approve it and secure appropriations and build it would have made |
