Oliver Seth

“ Rainbow Bridge itself is an impressive natural sandstone arch of great size extending across the inner gorge or cut of Bridge Creek within a larger canyon. Within and under the span, the inner gorge of Bridge Creek is seventy to seventy-five feet deep and extends below the lower base or abutment of the arch. It has steep, rocky, shelving, sandstone sides. Bridge Creek is an intermittent stream which flows into Lake Powell, the reservoir created by Glen Canyon Dam. This reservoir is still in the process of filling, and thus the maximum water level has not been reached. ”

“ If these requirements can be so met by use of this storage, the upper states can develop the water allocated to them for irrigation and other projects. If this storage is reduced by a limitation on the level of Lake Powell, some projects built, and some authorized, are at least impaired. This interrelation created by the comprehensive plan for development is rather delicate and can be disturbed if the capacity of by far the largest storage or regulating unit is reduced significantly. The total development plan was given extensive consideration by water experts and by Congress. ”

“ The deletion of funds by Congress for protective works was fully considered at committee hearings on the 1961 Appropriation Act. It may be noted that Glen Canyon Dam was then several years from completion.
The matter was again considered during the hearings and in the reports for the 1962 Public Works Appropriation Act (see 87th Cong. 1st Sess., House Report No. 1125, and Senate Report No. 1097) . Requested funds for protective works were again disallowed. The Senate Report No. 1097 explained why -- that no damage would result and the costs were too great. ”

“ The Authorities: The basic statutory provisions in the Storage Act (43 U.S.C. § 620 et seq.) with which we are concerned were inserted, as described above, in sections 1 and 3 of the comprehensive statute for the Colorado River Development. These provisions have there remained, but Congress has made them a nullity by the contrary provisions in the many appropriation acts which are supported by its [p9] declared reasons set forth in the formal committee reports.
Appropriation acts are just as effective a way to legislate as are ordinary bills relating to a particular subject. ”

“ The record shows that Congress evaluated the issues and reached a decision. This is sufficiently well documented in committee reports and otherwise to dictate the conclusion [p10] here reached. As the Court said in Dickerson:
"The meaning to be ascribed to an Act of Congress can only be derived from a considered weighing of every relevant aid to construction."
In addition to the Appropriation Acts, we have considered the other Acts of Congress, described above, which concerned other dams and projects within the scope of the Storage Act in reaching our conclusions. ”

“ The defendant officials have made computations presumably based upon levels previously surveyed. These were used in the evidence they presented to the trial court and to this court. These figures were not challenged by the plaintiffs, and have been used in this opinion. These same calculations also served as a basis for the many actions taken by Congress described above. Particularly [p12] the representation has been made that when the Dam is operated at maximum design capacity, the water depth under Rainbow Bridge, within the sides of Bridge Creek gorge, will not exceed forty-eight feet. ”

“ This storage, if sufficient, would then permit the Upper Basin states to utilize the water allocated under their Compacts, and to use the revenues to develop participating projects for irrigation. These river regulating reservoirs include Curecanti, Flaming Gorge, Navajo, and Glen Canyon. Of these, Lake Powell has some 25,000,000 acre feet of active storage if operated to capacity, while the others [p6] combined have a total of about 6,400,000 acre feet. ”

“ National City Bank, 296 U.S. 497, 56 S.C.t. 349, 80 L. Ed. 351 but more a reversal of a previous position after considering it fully in the public hearings and after the members apparently came to the conclusion that the protective works would be more detrimental than the presence of water in the Monument. ”