Grand Canyon To Be Flooded More

“We must find a way to protect one of the world’s most treasured landscapes — the Grand Canyon — while meeting water and clean energy needs in the face of climate change,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced recently in a video message to the Colorado River Water Users Association in Las Vegas.

His department will begin experiments testing if manmade floods — flowing into the Colorado River — will better protect wildlife and archaeological sites. The floods would be released from the Glen Canyon Dam and could cause a buildup of sandbars and beaches along a 277-mile span of the river in the Grand Canyon.

Man-made floods are an attempt to restore conditions that existed in the canyon before the Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1966. The dam traps sediment formerly carried by the Colorado River, leading to the erosion of beaches in the Grand Canyon downstream.

James Kaiser photo

Anne Castle, an assistant secretary in the department, told water managers at the Las Vegas meeting that experiments with floods have shown they need to be frequent to do their work.

"We’ve put in place a comprehensive science program designed to figure out the complex processes at work downstream of Glen Canyon Dam," Castle said. "We’ve learned that one of the best tools we have to benefit resources in the Grand Canyon is short-duration, high-flow releases."

Since 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam has stopped 90 percent of sediments that offer a sustainable habitat for plants and animals. Several endangered species of fish have also declined.

Environmental groups have been pushing for more frequent floods, while water managers and operators of hydroelectric dams say they disrupt operations.

*This post was created from a compilation of news source, including UPI, AP and The Arizona Republic.

Written by Tracy

Writer, Photographer, former Waterblogged Editor