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Show 246 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER of water, nearly 13.5 times the amount of water it was planned to store in the reservoir.304 So permeable was the stone at the Glen Canyon Dam site, said Dr. Hoots, that more than 15 million gallons of water would leak around the dam abutments every day. For miles along the reservoir sides, under- lying the canyon walls of Navajo sandstone, was Chinle shale which rapidly disintegrated when brought into contact with water. Thus, as the reservoir water touched this shale it would disintegrate to a soft mud mass, and the walls would collapse. The gigantic canyon walls resting on the shale, stated Dr. Hoots, would avalanche into the reservoir, partially or completely rilling it. These enormous landslides would make the reservoir useless, even if leakage did not. Rep. Hosmer not only brought the Hoots report to the attention of every member of Congress. He sent small samples of the Chinle shale to the editor of every daily newspaper in the nation. When dropped into a glass of water the shale quickly turned to mud. The opponents of the crsp were gratified by the hundreds of news stories which resulted. It was a good way to start the New Year. In his State of the Union Message, delivered on Janu- ary 5, 1956, President Eisenhower told Congress: ". . . I strongly recommend that action be taken on such wholly federal projects as the Colorado River Storage Project. . ." This was the opening shot of the last year of the war over the crsp. |