Here are the latest HOT TOPICS and what you can do about them:
Pandemic Used To Upend Grand Canyon River Management Plan; Your Comments Needed!
May 31, 2020
RRFW Riverwire Halloween Senate Hearing Is Ghoulish On DIY Federal Lands Access
November 21, 2019
On Halloween, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on legislation championed by the outfitter and guiding industry trade association America Outdoors streamlining outfitter and guide permitting.
The Recreation Not Red Tape Act, introduced by Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, and the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation (SOAR) Act, introduced by New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, were both part of the Halloween hearing. This Senate legislation has companion legislation in the House that Riverwire has previously reported on, H.R 3458 and H.R. 3879.
You can read the text for the Recreation Not Red Tape Act, S.1967 here:
and the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation Act (SOAR), S.1665 here:
These legislative initiatives would allow unlimited special use permits for outfitting, guiding, recreational and competitive events, including guided fishing and hunting, both motorized and nonmotorized, and include areas that are already allocated with previously established ceilings of use.
Both bills do absolutely nothing to assure access for do-it-yourself recreational users. Once access ceilings are reached by the outfitted groups, there will be no access remaining for the do-it-yourself public. The bills both state “If additional use capacity is available, the Secretary may, at any time, assign the remaining use to 1 or more qualified recreation service providers.”
Like the companion bills in the House, H.R 3458 and H.R. 3879, this legislation would bypass the National Environmental Policy Act by allowing a categorical exclusion for outfitter permits, and bypass carry capacity studies for outfitted and guided permits. The bill removes the do-it-yourself public’s voice when it comes to reviewing the need for new commercial permits. Both bills state that “the Secretary concerned shall not conduct a needs assessment as a condition of issuing a special recreation permit for a public land unit under this Act.” In fact, the bills require that once an application is received, the permit will need to be issued within 60 days.
Speakers at the hearing included agency representatives from the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service, as well as the largest outfitter in Oregon, a representative from the National Outdoor Leadership School the day before he changed jobs to head the trade association America Outdoors, and a representative for the ski industry.
Senator Lisa Murkowski chaired the hearing, and other Senators at the hearing included Angus King of Maine, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. These bills will head for markup and then to the full Senate for a vote.
It is important that you take the time to contact your Senators across the country and let them know that the Recreation without Red Tape Act and the SOAR Act are a takings of access from the public who does not use guided services. This includes church groups, scouting groups, veterans, teachers and families that do not use commercial services to access Federal Lands.
What you might want to say:
Include that you recreate on federal lands and that you are aware getting do-it-yourself permits is harder and harder.
Mention you are aware of S. 1665 and S. 1967 and that you do not support these bills that give away your federal land access to for-profit companies.
Mention that S. 1665 and S. 1967 do not include safeguards to protect do-it-yourself recreational access.
Mention that outfitting and guiding on federal land should not have categorical exclusion protection from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Demand that these bills require a NEPA Needs Assessment for every new Special Use Permit. State that removing this tool removes your voice from the management of your federal lands.
Mention that any legislation for new Special Use Permits must be for underserved populations and at-risk youth only.
Mention that language in S. 1665 and S. 1967 must not give away actual use plus 25%. That is your access these bills propose to give away.
Be polite but stand up for your access to your federal lands.
You can find your Senators here:
https://www.senate.gov/senators/index.htm
It’s up to you. You can sit quietly and do nothing, or you can speak up to preserve your access to Federal lands now and in the future.
Please share!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RIVERWIRE is a free service to the community of river lovers from River Runners for Wilderness. To sign-up for future Riverwires, send an e-mail address to riverwire@rrfw.org and we'll add it to the RRFW Riverwire e-mail alerts list.
Join RRFW's Facebook discussion group to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues. It's as easy as visiting https://www.facebook.com/groups/raftgc/
Join RRFW's Yahoogroup discussion group to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues. It's as easy as sending a blank e-mail to
Rafting_Grand_Canyon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Check out RRFW's Rafting Grand Canyon Wiki for free information on Do-It-Yourself Grand Canyon rafting info https://rrfw.org/RaftingGrandCanyon/Main_Page
Check out new items and donate at the RRFW Store! RRFW is a non-profit project of Living Rivers. https://rrfw.org/catalog/donations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RRFW Riverwire – Two Permits, Four Dams, and Trouble for the LCR
Updated October 1, 2019
A start-up company based out of Phoenix, Arizona, had no idea how contentious things would get when they filed two permits with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this spring to build four dams in the Little Colorado River Gorge on Navajo Nation land adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park.
The permit applications are part of a nationwide rush of permit filings for what is known as pumped storage hydroelectricity. Only in this case, the permits are not only contentious, but they face serious design challenges as well.
The concept is simple. During a 24-hour day, the price of electricity fluctuates with demand. If a landscape can accommodate two dam sites within a few miles of each other and the dam locations have a large enough elevation difference between them, the location has pumped storage potential and a permit is filed with the FERC.
At the Little Colorado River Gorge, the Phoenix company decided to file two permits for back to back pump storage facilities in a stairstep. The upstream pair of dams, one low and one high, would be located just upstream of the next pair of dams. one low and one high. Two giant reservoirs would be built up on the rim of the gorge and two reservoirs back to back would flood the gorge below.
The result required two permits to build four dams and resulted in a whole mess of trouble.
It turns out the Phoenix based company that filed the permits did not check with anyone at the Cameron Chapter of the Navajo Nation, including the Chapter’s elected officials. No other western Navajo chapters were consulted either. Though the Navajo Nation at Window Rock was notified of the projects, no decision one way or another was forthcoming from Navajo Nation officials.
Another oversight in the dam plans was that the downstream dam in the bottom of the gorge would completely flood a location held most sacred to the Hopi Nation known as the Sipapu. Think of it as the Hopi Nation’s Notre Dame, a place of pilgrimage visited by the Hopi for thousands of years. The Hopi and Navajo nations have a legally binding agreement not to adversely impact each other’s sacred sites.
Besides the sacred, the location itself is fraught with engineering challenges. The two dams on the rim would be located on Kaibab Limestone, a rock known for its ability to leak water. Hence, the two high reservoirs would need to be lined to hold their precious water.
Meanwhile, the two dams down in the gorge would face their own unique problems. One being travertine. The Little Colorado River Gorge is known for its travertine dams, formed by one of the largest natural springs in all of Northern Arizona. Over a thousand gallons of water every minute discharges into the Little Colorado River, water that is high in dissolved minerals. These minerals coat the natural rock, and would coat the proposed dams, headgates, pumps and turbines as well.
Another problem dam-builders would face is faulting. The area chosen for the two high and two low dams is faulted with natural fracturing in the area. Faults are pathways for water to travel. It’s why that large natural spring is where it is.
And then there are the floods. The Little Colorado River drains an area over 26,000 square miles, bigger than the entire state of West Virginia. Dry most of the year just above Blue Springs, the Little Colorado River gorge can experience flooding close to 100,000 cubic feet per second. That water is not clear but contains large quantities of dirt which the two dams in the bottom of the gorge would need to deal with.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit process has two main steps, the application followed by an in-depth permit review. This part of the permitting process can take up to three years. The preliminary permit review period is where studies of the impacts of the proposed project are made. It is followed by a formal license application, where FERC decides what conditions (based on the studies done during the preliminary permit process) will be imposed on the project's construction and operation.
The good news is the public gets to comment. Twice, once for each of the two permits. The public is encouraged to comment, and additional comments can be filed later in the sixty-day commenting period as new information is learned.
Issues the public might want to mention include adverse impacts to the Navajo, Hopi and other Pueblo nations, siltation issues at the lower dams, porous issues at the high dam locations, faulting at all the dam locations, impacts to downstream resources like Grand Canyon National Park including native fish like the Humpback Chub, and impacts from travertine that would form on the mechanical structures of the two dams.
River Runners For Wilderness will continue to work on talking points and encourages anyone interested in this issue to start commenting. Additional comments may be sent to FERC at any time before the November deadlines. Here are the two links on where to comment. You are encouraged to comment on both permits.
Please share this far and wide, and let’s bury this project in comments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RIVERWIRE is a free service to the community of river lovers from River Runners for Wilderness. To sign-up for future Riverwires, send an e-mail address to riverwire@rrfw.org and we'll add it to the RRFW Riverwire e-mail alerts list.
Join RRFW's Facebook Grand Canyon discussion group to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues. It's as easy as visiting https://www.facebook.com/groups/raftgc/
Join RRFW's Yahoogroup discussion group to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues. It's as easy as sending a blank e-mail to
Rafting_Grand_Canyon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Check out RRFW's Rafting Grand Canyon Wiki for free information on how to organize a Do-It-Yourself Grand Canyon rafting trip at https://rrfw.org/RaftingGrandCanyon/Main_Page
Check out new items and donate at the RRFW Store! RRFW is a non-profit all-volunteer project of Living Rivers. https://rrfw.org/catalog/donations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are the latest HOT TOPICS and what you can do about them:
Pandemic Used To Upend Grand Canyon River Management Plan; Your Comments Needed!
May 31, 2020
RRFW Riverwire Halloween Senate Hearing Is Ghoulish On DIY Federal Lands Access
November 21, 2019
On Halloween, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on legislation championed by the outfitter and guiding industry trade association America Outdoors streamlining outfitter and guide permitting.
The Recreation Not Red Tape Act, introduced by Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, and the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation (SOAR) Act, introduced by New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, were both part of the Halloween hearing. This Senate legislation has companion legislation in the House that Riverwire has previously reported on, H.R 3458 and H.R. 3879.
You can read the text for the Recreation Not Red Tape Act, S.1967 here:
and the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation Act (SOAR), S.1665 here:
These legislative initiatives would allow unlimited special use permits for outfitting, guiding, recreational and competitive events, including guided fishing and hunting, both motorized and nonmotorized, and include areas that are already allocated with previously established ceilings of use.
Both bills do absolutely nothing to assure access for do-it-yourself recreational users. Once access ceilings are reached by the outfitted groups, there will be no access remaining for the do-it-yourself public. The bills both state “If additional use capacity is available, the Secretary may, at any time, assign the remaining use to 1 or more qualified recreation service providers.”
Like the companion bills in the House, H.R 3458 and H.R. 3879, this legislation would bypass the National Environmental Policy Act by allowing a categorical exclusion for outfitter permits, and bypass carry capacity studies for outfitted and guided permits. The bill removes the do-it-yourself public’s voice when it comes to reviewing the need for new commercial permits. Both bills state that “the Secretary concerned shall not conduct a needs assessment as a condition of issuing a special recreation permit for a public land unit under this Act.” In fact, the bills require that once an application is received, the permit will need to be issued within 60 days.
Speakers at the hearing included agency representatives from the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service, as well as the largest outfitter in Oregon, a representative from the National Outdoor Leadership School the day before he changed jobs to head the trade association America Outdoors, and a representative for the ski industry.
Senator Lisa Murkowski chaired the hearing, and other Senators at the hearing included Angus King of Maine, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. These bills will head for markup and then to the full Senate for a vote.
It is important that you take the time to contact your Senators across the country and let them know that the Recreation without Red Tape Act and the SOAR Act are a takings of access from the public who does not use guided services. This includes church groups, scouting groups, veterans, teachers and families that do not use commercial services to access Federal Lands.
What you might want to say:
Include that you recreate on federal lands and that you are aware getting do-it-yourself permits is harder and harder.
Mention you are aware of S. 1665 and S. 1967 and that you do not support these bills that give away your federal land access to for-profit companies.
Mention that S. 1665 and S. 1967 do not include safeguards to protect do-it-yourself recreational access.
Mention that outfitting and guiding on federal land should not have categorical exclusion protection from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Demand that these bills require a NEPA Needs Assessment for every new Special Use Permit. State that removing this tool removes your voice from the management of your federal lands.
Mention that any legislation for new Special Use Permits must be for underserved populations and at-risk youth only.
Mention that language in S. 1665 and S. 1967 must not give away actual use plus 25%. That is your access these bills propose to give away.
Be polite but stand up for your access to your federal lands.
You can find your Senators here:
https://www.senate.gov/senators/index.htm
It’s up to you. You can sit quietly and do nothing, or you can speak up to preserve your access to Federal lands now and in the future.
Please share!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RIVERWIRE is a free service to the community of river lovers from River Runners for Wilderness. To sign-up for future Riverwires, send an e-mail address to riverwire@rrfw.org and we'll add it to the RRFW Riverwire e-mail alerts list.
Join RRFW's Facebook discussion group to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues. It's as easy as visiting https://www.facebook.com/groups/raftgc/
Join RRFW's Yahoogroup discussion group to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues. It's as easy as sending a blank e-mail to
Rafting_Grand_Canyon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Check out RRFW's Rafting Grand Canyon Wiki for free information on Do-It-Yourself Grand Canyon rafting info https://rrfw.org/RaftingGrandCanyon/Main_Page
Check out new items and donate at the RRFW Store! RRFW is a non-profit project of Living Rivers. https://rrfw.org/catalog/donations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RRFW Riverwire – Two Permits, Four Dams, and Trouble for the LCR
Updated October 1, 2019
A start-up company based out of Phoenix, Arizona, had no idea how contentious things would get when they filed two permits with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this spring to build four dams in the Little Colorado River Gorge on Navajo Nation land adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park.
The permit applications are part of a nationwide rush of permit filings for what is known as pumped storage hydroelectricity. Only in this case, the permits are not only contentious, but they face serious design challenges as well.
The concept is simple. During a 24-hour day, the price of electricity fluctuates with demand. If a landscape can accommodate two dam sites within a few miles of each other and the dam locations have a large enough elevation difference between them, the location has pumped storage potential and a permit is filed with the FERC.
At the Little Colorado River Gorge, the Phoenix company decided to file two permits for back to back pump storage facilities in a stairstep. The upstream pair of dams, one low and one high, would be located just upstream of the next pair of dams. one low and one high. Two giant reservoirs would be built up on the rim of the gorge and two reservoirs back to back would flood the gorge below.
The result required two permits to build four dams and resulted in a whole mess of trouble.
It turns out the Phoenix based company that filed the permits did not check with anyone at the Cameron Chapter of the Navajo Nation, including the Chapter’s elected officials. No other western Navajo chapters were consulted either. Though the Navajo Nation at Window Rock was notified of the projects, no decision one way or another was forthcoming from Navajo Nation officials.
Another oversight in the dam plans was that the downstream dam in the bottom of the gorge would completely flood a location held most sacred to the Hopi Nation known as the Sipapu. Think of it as the Hopi Nation’s Notre Dame, a place of pilgrimage visited by the Hopi for thousands of years. The Hopi and Navajo nations have a legally binding agreement not to adversely impact each other’s sacred sites.
Besides the sacred, the location itself is fraught with engineering challenges. The two dams on the rim would be located on Kaibab Limestone, a rock known for its ability to leak water. Hence, the two high reservoirs would need to be lined to hold their precious water.
Meanwhile, the two dams down in the gorge would face their own unique problems. One being travertine. The Little Colorado River Gorge is known for its travertine dams, formed by one of the largest natural springs in all of Northern Arizona. Over a thousand gallons of water every minute discharges into the Little Colorado River, water that is high in dissolved minerals. These minerals coat the natural rock, and would coat the proposed dams, headgates, pumps and turbines as well.
Another problem dam-builders would face is faulting. The area chosen for the two high and two low dams is faulted with natural fracturing in the area. Faults are pathways for water to travel. It’s why that large natural spring is where it is.
And then there are the floods. The Little Colorado River drains an area over 26,000 square miles, bigger than the entire state of West Virginia. Dry most of the year just above Blue Springs, the Little Colorado River gorge can experience flooding close to 100,000 cubic feet per second. That water is not clear but contains large quantities of dirt which the two dams in the bottom of the gorge would need to deal with.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit process has two main steps, the application followed by an in-depth permit review. This part of the permitting process can take up to three years. The preliminary permit review period is where studies of the impacts of the proposed project are made. It is followed by a formal license application, where FERC decides what conditions (based on the studies done during the preliminary permit process) will be imposed on the project's construction and operation.
The good news is the public gets to comment. Twice, once for each of the two permits. The public is encouraged to comment, and additional comments can be filed later in the sixty-day commenting period as new information is learned.
Issues the public might want to mention include adverse impacts to the Navajo, Hopi and other Pueblo nations, siltation issues at the lower dams, porous issues at the high dam locations, faulting at all the dam locations, impacts to downstream resources like Grand Canyon National Park including native fish like the Humpback Chub, and impacts from travertine that would form on the mechanical structures of the two dams.
River Runners For Wilderness will continue to work on talking points and encourages anyone interested in this issue to start commenting. Additional comments may be sent to FERC at any time before the November deadlines. Here are the two links on where to comment. You are encouraged to comment on both permits.
Please share this far and wide, and let’s bury this project in comments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RIVERWIRE is a free service to the community of river lovers from River Runners for Wilderness. To sign-up for future Riverwires, send an e-mail address to riverwire@rrfw.org and we'll add it to the RRFW Riverwire e-mail alerts list.
Join RRFW's Facebook Grand Canyon discussion group to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues. It's as easy as visiting https://www.facebook.com/groups/raftgc/
Join RRFW's Yahoogroup discussion group to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues. It's as easy as sending a blank e-mail to
Rafting_Grand_Canyon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Check out RRFW's Rafting Grand Canyon Wiki for free information on how to organize a Do-It-Yourself Grand Canyon rafting trip at https://rrfw.org/RaftingGrandCanyon/Main_Page
Check out new items and donate at the RRFW Store! RRFW is a non-profit all-volunteer project of Living Rivers. https://rrfw.org/catalog/donations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~