Salazar - High Glen Canyon Dam Flows Will Continue W. Goal Of Rebuilding Grand Canyon Sandbars

[hatrack]

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, December 11, 2009 (ENS) - The Department of the Interior will undertake an experimental initiative to improve the management of Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River as it flows through Grand Canyon National Park, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Thursday during the Colorado River Water Users Association conference.

"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," Salazar said in a video message to the water users' meeting at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The video was taped in Copenhagen where Secretary Salazar is participating in the global climate change conference.

"Today, I am directing the development of a protocol for conducting additional high flow experiments at the dam," Salazar said. "These experimental high flows, like the one in 2008, send sediment downstream to rebuild sandbars, beaches and backwaters. The rebuilt areas provide key wildlife habitat, enhance the aquatic food base, protect archeological sites, and create additional camping opportunities in the canyon," he said.

Because Glen Canyon Dam traps about 90 percent of the sand once available to maintain Grand Canyon sandbars, high flows are a good tool to rebuild these resources. The new protocol will allow for high flows to occur when Colorado River tributaries below the dam produce sufficient sediment to meet a threshold, or trigger.

EDIT

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2009/2009-12-11-092.asp

[villager]

1. Wouldn't the best Glen Canyon policy be to tear it down?

Rather than maintain the fiction that the West still has enough water to appease the "infinite horizon" fantasies of developers and ranchers?

[niyad]

2. wasn't there a proposal years ago to do just that? made perfect sense to me.

[niyad]

3. let's see if I have this right--a water users' convention is being held in LV-- a desert town that

pretends it has all the water in the world. makes perfect sense to me. . . .

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. Las Vegas: out of water by 2021

Researchers from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography found that there's a 10% chance that Las Vegas' water source -- Lake Mead -- will dry up in 6 years, and a 50/50 chance it will run out in 2021 if water consumption is not changed considerably. The man-made lake was created by the Hoover Dam, and was considered a marvel of its time. Now that Lake Mead is losing the battle with evaporation and human demand, the landmark is in danger of being more of a cautionary reminder than symbol of greatness.

Rapid growth in the arrid region surrounding Sin City along with lengthy drought conditions have already combined to bring the lake's water level is already below the halfway mark. Las Vegas officials are quick to point out that 80% of the river's flow is diverted for agriculture. It seems even more relevant to point out that the vast desert expanses of Nevada are sustainable places for neither agriculture or urban sprawl.


http://www.greendaily.com/2008/02/14/las-vegas-out-of-water-by-2021/