Grand Canyon to be flooded for five days?…I wonder what they are covering up (ore killing)
Grand Canyon to be flooded for five days to create beaches for campers
- The Colorado River will be flooded for five days from Monday
- Authorities want to clear millions of tons of sediment that have settled because of damming
- The dam has caused beaches and wildlife habitats to disappear
- The flood will distribute the sediment, creating beaches and protecting habitats and archaeological sites
An abundance of sand in the Colorado River is giving federal officials an opportunity to flood the waterway through the Grand Canyon.
The high-flow experiment starts Monday and is meant to create beaches for campers and sandbars and to protect archaeological sites.
It’s scheduled to last five days.
Great flood: The Colorado River will flood the Grand Canyon on Monday as part of an ongoing experiment to rebuild beaches and restore fish habitat in the iconic gorge
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation oversaw a similar flood from Glen Canyon Dam last November.
The difference this year is that three times the sediment is available to be pushed through the river.
The amount is equivalent to filling a football field-sized hole that is 690 feet deep.
According to the Arizona Daily Sun, an Olympic-sized swimming pool of water will be pumped into the river every other second.
Most of the sediment once deposited throughout the Grand Canyon is now trapped behind the dam near the Arizona-Utah border.
Full flush: Authorities want to clear out the millions of tons of sediment that settled at the bottom of the river due to the dam
The Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado in northern Arizona has caused many of the beaches downriver to slowly erode. Many have disappeared altogether.
The intent of the flooding is to mimic pre-dam conditions, in which natural flooding would create beaches and wildlife habitats.
The effort to restore the environment downstream is for both tourist and wildlife.
At its peak, next week’s release will hit 37,200 cubic feet per second over the course of five days, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.