It will come out of four massive jet tubes,
which bypass the dam's hydroelectric plant.
Posted on 03/07/2008 4:31:38 AM PST by yankeedame
Mark Sayre, Investigative Reporter
Updated: March 5, 2008 09:11 AM EST
It will come out of four massive jet tubes,
which bypass the dam's hydroelectric plant.
Billions of gallons of water will pour into the Grand Canyon and eventually into Lake Mead. The Bureau of Reclamation is planning a massive water release by opening the flood gates at the Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell starting Wednesday.
The release will create a springtime flood along the Colorado River, like ones that occurred before the dam was built. The bureau says it will improve the ecology and recreation in the Grand Canyon.
But some believe the flood could harm sensitive areas.
The Glen Canyon Dam is upstream from Hoover Dam. Water that leaves that dam flows through the Grand Canyon and then ultimately ends up in Lake Mead before reaching the Hoover Dam.
Wednesday morning, the Bureau of Reclamation plans to open up the dam to send a massive amount of water flooding into the Grand Canyon.
It will come out of four massive jet tubes, which bypass the dam's hydroelectric plant. The hope is to mimic natural floods which occurred before this dam was completed in the 1960's, scouring miles of river banks in the depths of the Grand Canyon.
To give an idea of how much water is being released during that time, the total amount of water released will amount to about 2/3 of what Nevada is entitled to draw from the Colorado River over an entire year.
This experiment is set to last for a total of 60 hours.
Water managers hope it will help create a better environment for a 3 million-year-old fish called the Humpback Chub.
"It is an experimental flow and the intent is to take some of the sand that has accumulated on the river bottom, or washed into the river, and move that sand up onto the beaches and the banks to reestablish the beach habitat -- to recreate and restore some of the areas where the recreational campers go. And it also helps clean out the backwaters, so you can get some of the endangered fish species in those backwaters and they can be safe from predators in the main stream of the river," said Bob Walsh with the Bureau of Reclamation.
A similar experiment was held in 1996. As in the 1996 experiment, U.S. Geological Survey personnel will be staged in the Grand Canyon to monitor to the water flow and both its short and long term impacts on the floor of the canyon.
Less water will be released from Glen Canyon Dam during the rest of the year to make up for the water released over the next several days. In the end, all of the river water allotments will be exactly the same.
"The humpback chub, Gila cypha, is a rare minnow native to the upper Colorado River system. Humpback chub originally thrived in the fast, deep, white-water areas of the Colorado River and its major tributaries, but flow alterations, which have changed the turbidity, volume, current speed, and temperature of the water in those rivers, have had significant negative impacts on the species. In fact, humpback chub in Utah are now confined to a few white-water areas in the Colorado, Green, and White Rivers. Because of the severe declines in humpback chub numbers and distribution, the species is Federally listed as endangered.
"Humpback chub primarily eat insects and other invertebrates, but algae and fishes are occasionally consumed. The species spawns during the spring and summer in shallow, backwater areas with cobble substrate. Young humpback chub remain in these slow, shallow, turbid habitats until they are large enough to move into white-water areas."
Source:Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
I love it when environmentalists fight.
I wonder how much coal will be burned to replace the energy this would have generated and added to the grid.
When I was at the Hoover Dam last April, the water was way low. At least this year, there should be a lot of snow in the mtns to melt and help alleviate some of the drought problems.
And how many animals did it kill? How many fish were removed from their locations and killed? How many people will be without water due to the actions of a bunch of idiots?
Glad you noticed. This has been dwindling for 15 years. The W. slopes of the Rockies in CO just have not been getting the usual snowfall. This year, voila! Plenty of snow. So, the good news is that Powell has finally begun to refill and the big release can finally be justified. So, L. Mead, look out, here it comes, and there's more where that came from. It is very encouraging!
this must make the folks in drought stricken Georgia feel good. water water every where for fish, but not a drop for agriculture or people.
The water flows from Lake Powell, through the Grand Canyon and into Lake Mead. Lake Mead supplies much of the water for southern California.
The water is not being wasted.
I suspect they’re filling up Lake Mead, in order to keep the Las Vegas water fountains going. Follow the money.
Three million years.
That is an OLD fish!
We have had so much rain and snow here in Arizona, our empty lakes are full and they are running the salt river again... The roads that have bridges crossing it are plugged solid now as the others that dont have bridges are uncrossable now. The water is flowing out into the middle of the desert.
But we DID something and NOW we can FEEL BETTER.............
We’ve seen this before.
The water release washes away the fish onto dry land or into isolated ponds and teams of federal bureaucrat clods are sent out to find the fish. They never do find the fish, of course, because the fish were picked up and eaten by birds.
This was over yesterday morning. Anyone seen the pictures of the discharge? The most obvious outcome will be new beaches for the rafters to camp on.
NO kidding. And now they are going to throw a bone to the landscaping a nursery industries to prevent more bankruptcies. I can’t tell you how mad I get going over the river every day and seeing the discharge level at full flood.
Right. And the snow on the N. face of the White Mts will exit via the Little Colorado, bypass L. Powell, and go directly to the Colorado into L. Mead. This is tremendous news, long awaited. BTW, have you ever seen one of the rare and spectacular sights in the US -- the slurry-mud cascading over Grand Falls between Leupp and Sunset Crater? A well-kept secret, hard to get to, but not to be missed. It should be occurring right about now, as snowmelt fills the Little Colorado, and continuing through April.
I was referring to the water problems of GA.
I misunderstood. My mistake.
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