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Show 210 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER their former colleague, Johnson, had said, they enjoyed less this new approach to their problem. One thing was plain: the conservationists had been doing a lot of thinking, and they had come up with some potent new weapons. This was made even more apparent with the ap- pearance of Executive-secretary Brower of the Sierra Club.251 As if he had forgotten all about Echo Park Dam, Brower submitted evidence to show that the Reclamation Bureau engineers themselves couldn't agree on either a site for Glen Canyon Dam or how high a dam should be built. There was good reason for this situation. There was doubt as to the geological suita- bility of the proposed site for a dam, regardless of its height. Anderson promptly accused Brower of attempting to discredit public officials.252 Millikin asked sarcastically: "Has the Sierra Club built any dams?" The confusion of the Reclamation Bureau engineers was no greater than that of the committee. Here were the conservationists, on the one hand supporting the Johnson plan for Glen Canyon Dam, and on the other hand warning that it might not hold water if built. The trouble was that although they were conflicting pro- posals, both were potent arguments and were attracting the attention of the newspapermen present. Brower didn't permit the committee time to counter- attack. The taxpayers of the nation, he declared, could be saved billions of dollars if steam plants were built in the Upper Basin instead of hydroelectric plants to supply the power needed there. Government-operated coal steam plants could produce power at 4.9 mills, he asserted, as compared with six mills by the proposed |