Opinion ID: 1359444
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Park Service Management of the Colorado River Corridor.

Text: The waters of the Colorado River originate in the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah and run 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California. The Colorado is the longest and largest river in the Southwestern United States. Once in the Grand Canyon, the river flows some 4,000 to 6,000 feet below the rim of the Canyon through cliffs, spires, pyramids, and successive escarpments of colored stone. Access to the bottom of the Grand Canyon can be gained only by hiking, riding mules, or floating the river. Those floating the river typically do so in motor-powered rubber rafts, oar or paddle-powered rubber rafts, oar-powered dories, or kayaks. Floating the river through the Grand Canyon is considered one of America's great outdoor adventures and includes some of the largest white-water rapids in the United States. [2] Use of the Colorado River Corridor increased substantially after Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1963 and produced a relatively steady flow through the Canyon. Because of this increased use, the Park Service initiated a series of river planning and management efforts, culminating in a December 1972 River Use Plan. SAR 000712. [3] The plan concluded that motorized craft should be phased-out of use in the Grand Canyon. SAR 000721, 000705. The plan also concluded that 89,000 commercial user days and 7,600 noncommercial user days would be allocated for the 1973 season (SAR 000706, 000707), but that commercial use would be scaled down to 55,000 user days by 1977 (SAR 000705). [4] A 1973 Draft Environmental Impact Statement concluded that [t]he use of motors ... should be eliminated as soon as possible from the river environment and that [t]he propose[d] elimination of motorized trips will ... hav[e] a positive environmental impact. SAR 000917, 000929. The Park Service initiated a Colorado River Research Program in 1974 to examine, among other things, the impact of motorized activities on the river. SAR 003717, 003721. In September of 1977, the Park Service issued a document suggesting that the use of motors is contrary to established health and safety standards and again opining that the use of motorized craft should be eliminated. SAR 003728. The document noted that [n]on-motorized travel is more compatible with wilderness experience and that [m]otor noise levels may have adverse effects on pilot performance, resulting in potential safety hazards. SAR 003749. The Park Service was unable, however, to document [any] difference in numbers and degree of injuries between the two types of craft. Id. In August of 1976, the Park Service issued a Master Plan for management of the Park. The Master Plan included an objective of [l]imit[ing] mechanized access below the rims [of the Grand Canyon] to emergency and management use. SAR 002352. In February of 1977, the Park Service recommended that Congress designate over one million acres within the Park as wilderness. SAR 002680. The Park Service found that motorized use of the river is inconsistent with the wilderness criteria of providing outstanding opportunities for solitude and for primitive and unconfined type of recreation. SAR 002711, 002723. The Park Service released the first CRMP in December of 1979. SAR 005223-005285. Use of motorized watercraft between Lees Ferry and Separation Canyon was to be phased out over a five-year period. SAR 005244. The 1979 CRMP stated that such a phaseout was consistent with the objective of the [1976] Master Plan[,] corresponded with the park wilderness proposal, and was based on the extensive Colorado River Research project for the Grand Canyon[.] Id. The CRMP increased the allocated commercial user days from 89,000 per year to 115,500 and increased the allocated non-commercial user days from 7,600 to 54,450. SAR 005246. In September 1980, the Park Service proposed that the Colorado River Corridor be designated as potential wilderness and, once motorboat use was phased-out, as wilderness. SR 005770. Congress countermanded the 1979 CRMP in a 1981 appropriations bill for the Department of the Interior. The bill prohibited the use of appropriated funds for the implementation of any management plan for the Colorado River within the [Park] which reduces the number of user days or passenger-launches for commercial motorized watercraft excursions[.] SAR 005896. Members of Congress sent a letter to the Park Service expressing their wish that the [1979 CRMP] be amended... to accommodate the 1978 level and pattern of commercial, motorized watercraft access while at the same time protecting... the increased non-commercial allocation which the plan provides. SAR 005901. The Park Service subsequently revised the 1979 CRMP to retain[ ] motorized use and the increase in user-days that had been intended as compensation for the phase-out of motors, resulting in more motorized use of the river. AR 104602. The Park Service issued a second CRMP in 1989. The 1989 CRMP was similar to the revised 1979 CRMP. It included the same allocation of user days for commercial and noncommercial boaters, but increased the number of non-commercial launches. AR 000863. The Park Service's 1995 General Management Plan (GMP) for the Park identified an objective of provid[ing] a wilderness river experience on the Colorado River, but explained that this objective will not affect decisions regarding the use of motorboats on the river. SAR 010142. Rather, the GMP stated that the 1989 CRMP would be revised and that the revised plan would address the use of motors. SAR 010188.