It took 10 years to complete the Glen Canyon Dam (then the second-largest arch-gravity dam in the world) at a cost of less than $900 million in 2023 dollars, an unthinkable pace and cost today. Strong union contracts and Davis-Bacon wages played a key role. 1/

https://twitter.com/leee_harris/status/1688571929463066624

Labor unrest was common throughout the project, including a 6-month strike from the largest contractor in 1959.

A couple of months ago, my editor @granteb suggested we do a special Lake Powell issue for the @sltrib. I knew we had a lot to say about how the reservoir is changing after 22 years of megadrought, but I'm blown away by the paper we published yesterday. Thread... Photographer Rick Egan and videographer @bethanybakerpix joined me for a couple of scorching hot days on the lake and came back with some incredible media, including this video by Bethany sltrib.com/news/environme…

Should private equity be able to speculate on CO River water? James Eklund, legal advisor to the hedge fund Water Asset Management that has been buying up agricultural land in the basin, just spoke at a conference at CU Law. He said the vast public perception is that water, like air, shouldn't be privately owned. But Eklund said the current crisis on the Colorado River should push people to consider solutions that were once seen as heretical, in order to make the system more "efficient."

A crisis is looming in the Colorado River Basin. The Bureau of Reclamation projects that as soon as 2022 Lake Powell could reach its lowest level ever. The snowpack for the 4 Upper Basin states — Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico — is 67 percent of average @Report4America 1/ And as @judyfutah writes in today's paper, a lack of a monsoon in 2020 created extremely dry soil conditions that will reduce runoff this spring even if more snow falls. 2/ insideclimatenews.org/news/31012021/…

Folks, I found it. Just kidding, I actually found it. It’s 9’7” tall. Made of thin stainless steel or aluminum sheets around a foam core. Base is cut into a custom hole in the rock with a saw and likely anchored to a bolt under the sculpture.

On the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation, over 40% of homes do not have running water. Public taps where people fill up tanks hauled by pickup truck often have long lines and low water pressure. Other sources have been contaminated by uranium or arsenic. (1/x) This three-part series with photos from @Tenhogs -- and with support from @Report4America and @soljourno -- looks at the current state of water projects on the northern Navajo Nation and mid- and long-term solutions for expanding water access. (2/x)

Thread incoming about the effort to shrink #BearsEars, a $500/hour attorney, and a mysterious $109K payment that went missing and is now being returned to the poorest county in Utah. (And about the benefits of local journalism, or how I became a believer in my own career.) 1/ I recently made an open records request to obtain forty pages of invoices a high-priced Louisiana law firm charged San Juan County, UT in 2017. The firm was primarily lobbying to reduce the newly created Bears Ears Nat'l Monument 2/ sltrib.com/news/2019/07/2…

San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams just introduced resolutions in support of the Kayenta Coal Mine on Black Mesa and in support of the Navajo Generating Station in Ariz., which is scheduled to be decommissioned. Adams cites employment opportunities for SJC residents. Commissioner Kenneth Maryboy just introduced a resolution to have San Juan County bring in outside counsel to sue its own attorney, Kendall Laws, for "failure to comply with the lawful directives of the county" related #BearsEars and other issues. #utpol utah.gov/pmn/files/4814…