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Posted on 02/07/2012 5:54:01 AM PST by SJackson
(Grand Canyon, AZ) - Grand Canyon National Park will eliminate the in-park sale of water packaged in individual disposable containers within 30 days under a plan approved Monday by National Park Service (NPS) Intermountain Regional (IMR) Director John Wessels. Free water stations are available throughout the park to allow visitors to fill reusable water bottles.
The park’s plan calls for the elimination of the sale of water packaged in individual disposable containers of less than one gallon, including plastic bottles and various types of boxes. The waste associated with disposable bottles comprises an estimated 20 percent of the park’s overall waste stream and 30 percent of the park’s recyclables.
Grand Canyon National Park’s plan was submitted and approved in accordance with the policy issued by NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis on December 14, 2011. Under the policy, parks are directed to implement a disposable plastic water bottle recycling and reduction policy, with an option to eliminate in-park sales – with the approval of the park’s regional director – following a thorough analysis of a variety of factors ranging from the cost to install water filling stations, to the cost and availability of BPA-free reusable containers, to potential effects on public safety.
Regional Director Wessels said, “Our parks should set the standard for resource protection and sustainability. Grand Canyon National Park has provided an excellent analysis of the impacts the elimination of bottled water would have, and has developed a well-thought-out plan for ensuring that the safety, needs and comfort of visitors continue to be met in the park," he said. "I feel confident that the impacts to park concessioners and partners have been given fair consideration and that this plan can be implemented with minimal impacts to the visiting public," Wessels added.
Grand Canyon National Park has experienced increasing amounts of litter associated with disposable plastic bottles along trails both on the rim and within the inner canyon, marring canyon viewpoints and visitor experiences.
“We want to minimize both the monetary and environmental costs associated with water packaged in disposable containers,” said Grand Canyon Superintendent Dave Uberuaga. “We are grateful to the Director for recognizing the need for service-wide guidance on this issue and for providing a thoughtful range of options.”
“A lot of careful thought went into this plan and its implementation,” said Director Jarvis. “I applaud Grand Canyon National Park for its efforts to reduce waste and the environmental impacts created by individually packaged water. This is another example of The National Park Service’s commitment to being an exemplar of the ways we can all reduce our imprint on the land as we embrace sustainable practices that will protect the parks for generations to come.”
Read more: KCSG Television - Grand Canyon National Park to Eliminate Sale of Water in Disposable Containers
When I was there in ‘09 I was pretty much the only American there. Hordes of Chinese and Japanese. We stayed for about an hour and moved on. The Eastern Az sites were much more impressive.
So....stop selling water. I carry my own in. I don’t care.
Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power.
The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.
There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern.
They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
-Daniel Webster
There’s a huge “firehose” of surface water at the bottom.
Not closing the market, just keep them out of national forest and public lands.
THe word you’re looking for is “conservationist.” An environmentalist doesn’t want us to use the resources God gave us while the conservationist wisely uses all the God given resources. Key word is wisely.
I once had to school a conservative US Senator on national radio about that when he said “We’re all environmentalists.”
That said, I also support the new rule. Hikers should carry copious amounts of water in the Grand Canyon, not just a 12 oz throw away bottle. Nalgene’s run about $10 each so people tend to hang on to them. A friend of mine told me that he came across some guy who was several miles into the trail and his can of Coke was empty. My friend had enough water on him that he was able to spare an entire gallon to give the guy.
Yeah its only a mile down, watch out for the sudden stop though.
20 years ago there wasn’t bottled water available at all, yet somehow we survived, even in the Grand Canyon and throughout the desert areas. Now everyone is carrying a bottle of water all the time. It’s pathetic how the sheeple have bought into the hyper-hydration myth, where if you don’t drink X amount of water daily you’re going to die, so you MUST carry water with you at all times. FEH!
ParcMan - oops, make that ParcPersons do induce a common feeling of acute dyspepsia in all who encounter one of those things.
I am surprised the thread isn’t far larger.
Try coming up from the bottom after descending the North trail, ASSUMING that the water supply is WORKING at IG, 3 and 1.5 mile rest stops!
Fill up yer gut before starting out!
(No; NOT like a 7 day camel!)
Give it time...
And as we sit around a campfire, here in Indiana, the talk will eventually drift to the famous Death March that Elsie subjected his faithful followers to....
Seems like the US Gummint used to fire off rockets from Green River Ut down range into White Sands, back before the Interstate system was finished. Wuzn’t too many folk in the way, back then.
A rocket went haywire shortly after launch and it was destroyed over what is now Canyonlands by the Range Safety Officer, with chunks of debris falling 20 miles or so south of Moab.
I learned of this thru a couple of hiking books by Kelsey.
(This was before GPS and the maps were a bit generic in his books.)
Being an explorer of sorts, I wanted to find some of this stuff as it was described as still being down in the side canyons.
I found one small piece about 5 miles NW of Windwhistle campground, and was wanting to locate the other pieces that were in another canyon.
I’ve approached where I thought the stuff was from both sides of the side canyon 2-3 times each, but have never found anything. (That canyon has enough water in it that the tamrisk is REALLY thick, and, for ADDED excitement, there are range cattle around and they can smell a Big MAc on yer breath!)
Anyway, I had these 3 city folk with me once at Looking Glass Rock (Thanks for civilizing it, NPS and BLM - NOT!) where I parked the van. The cayon is about 2 miles away, on a gently sloping sandy alluvial plain, with a few trees and bushes. I had my backpack full of enough stuff for a short trip and they were carrying water for themselves. Not as much as I, for they were going to stay on top while I climbed down. After about a mile, they pooped out under a tree, by a dry streambed - said they’d wait.
I bid them adieu and set off, marking the stop on the gps, and taking a picture with my inexpensive digital. I was even chatting with my buddy on the walkie-talkie til I was out of range (cheap kid toy!) I walked that streambed to the pour off; an 80 foot or so drop. No way down there so I walked along the top til I got to a place that I could go down. After an hour or so, I found nothing, so, hot and tired, I retraced my path.
Some buddies! GONE they wuz when I got back to the tree.
When I got to the van, I found out my best bud had slipped his water into my pack and I was carrying it! Served him right for the girls had to half drag him back!
No; ALL the water was gone when I got to the van as I ain’t about to be carrying any on the outside if it fits in the inside!
Rest of story...
A couple of years later, my wife and I headed for Moab once again, searching for the Holy Grail. This time we drove the Jeep in from a different direction, perhaps to get REAL close to the rim and avoid the walk in to the canyon.
Successful, she stayed in the vehicle as I headed over the side once again.
yada yada yada
I never found a thing.
“That’s It; I’m done searching - phooey on it!”, and I drove back to town in a huff (leaving the Jeep behind?)
Along the way, we stopped at Hole-in-the-Rock to see what new stuff they had from the last time. (Watch out for Big Bird. He bites!)
Now there is all kinds of ‘art’ made from desert debris. A bison made from wire, a jeep covered with old license plates, a golfer made from used clubs and what appears to be a meteor made from, from... from ROCKET PIECES!
Silly me! Thought I was the ONLY one who scrounged things from the desert!!
So; I guess it’s true: Sometimes we have to give up on something to finally find it!
We got one...
CONSERVATION....CONSERVATIONIST
I is proud to be wearin that label...;)
Along the side of the road were lots of small pieces of petrified wood and one of my son's picked up a piece to show me and he wanted it....I being a law abiding woman told him..."don't you let me catch you picking up any of those pieces" then turned my back on them and walked away...even hubby (sneaky as he was called) opened up the Velvetta at the campsite and found a beautiful piece the size of the palm of my hand that magically found its way into the velvetta box...
When you leave the forest there is a ranger station with a sign reminding you its against the law to remove any petrified wood...one son had a panic look on his face and cried MOOOOOOM....I told him to shut up, the ranger asked if we had picked up any wood and to my knowledge we hadn't so I said NOPE. 5 kids and a husband said nothing.. :O)
If you had looked closely as you exited the park, the drainage ditches along side the road were MADE of ‘petrified tree’ rocks!
son #2 who had the piece in his pocket (that I didn’t see) was 10 at the time, he is now 50...We still talk about it....:O) The edge of the road mixed in with the gravel was petrified wood. Thats where they found it, without me catching them....(I am a bad mother) :O(
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