Feds won’t flood the #GrandCanyon this spring. What that will mean for the #ColoradoRiver — AZCentral.com #COriver #aridification – Coyote Gulch

Click on the hyperlink to learn the article on the AZCentral webiste (Brandon Loomis). Right here’s an excerpt:

Could 23, 2025

Story Abstract

• Federal officers have confirmed that they won’t flood the Grand Canyon this spring, citing ongoing work on Glen Canyon Dam and within the Colorado River downstream.
• Colorado River advocates say failing to flood the Canyon will damage efforts to revive seashores and protect the atmosphere beneath Glen Canyon Dam.
• Some river advocates say the federal government’s determination could run afoul of the Grand Canyon Safety Act, which requires the feds to protect ecological and leisure facets of the Canyon.

Federal officers have rejected a plan to launch floodwaters from Lake Powell to revive Grand Canyon seashores this spring, irritating river advocates who query the federal government’s dedication to defending the canyon’s atmosphere…With repeated selections to not open the floodgates even when the sand is on the market, some are questioning whether or not the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program is preserving Grand Canyon’s ecology and recreation as required beneath the Grand Canyon Safety Act of 1992…

“We are failing,” stated Ben Reeder, a Utah-based river information who represents the Grand Canyon River Guides on a technical work group that considers administration choices for the Reclamation Bureau.

Reclamation officers stated in April that they’d suggest that new Inside Secretary Doug Burgum not authorize the flood as a result of a Nationwide Park Service contractor was excavating in a slough downstream of the dam to disrupt its use as a spawning mattress by non-native fish, together with smallmouth bass. Work on relining the bypass tubes to guard their metal pipes additionally interfered…The floods value maybe $1 million or $2 million in misplaced hydroelectric manufacturing, based on Leslie James, who represents principally rural and tribal energy shoppers in this system as government director of the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association. Final yr, when there was no main flood however the dam managers usually pulsed cold water through the bypass tubes to maintain the river inhospitable to bass spawning, the company stated the price in misplaced energy manufacturing was $19 million. The losses deplete a fund that pays for dam upkeep and environmental applications, James famous, and drawing extra from that fund this yr might trigger delays in upkeep.