Glen Canyon Dam has greatly altered the Colorado River, inundating more than 150 miles of the Colorado River in Glen Canyon and transforming the ecosystem of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. But Utah State University scientists urge caution in implementing the widely publicized Fill Mead First plan aimed at restoring the canyon. The massive plan calls for partially or completely draining Lake Powell, the reservoir formed by the dam, and collecting the water downstream in Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by Hoover Dam.
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Schmidt and colleagues identified several significant issues that could cause adverse ecosystem changes in the Grand Canyon. For one, recreating the natural pattern of stream flow in Grand Canyon would be very difficult, unless Glen Canyon Dam is completely bypassed. Similarly, it will be impossible to provide a natural supply of sand essential to restoring eddy sandbars and camping beaches in Grand Canyon, unless the dam is completely bypassed.Thus, the ecosystem changes in the Grand Canyon may be small or even harmful, says Schmidt, who was among scientists who proposed use of controlled floods from Glen Canyon Dam to mitigate the dam's effects, including the most recent of those floods begun Nov. 7, 2016, and continuing through Nov. 11. A project as large as FMF should not be attempted, he says, until a detailed plan is in place to avoid catastrophic changes to the Grand Canyon ecosystem downstream from the dam.
Hydroelectric is a significant source of renewable power in the American West, but building dams is not so irreversible for the affected ecosystems.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday November 12 2016, @12:39AM
The Glen Canyon Institute, an NGO which advocates draining Lake Powell, commissioned a study which found that much more water seeps out of Lake Powell than out of Lake Mead, due to the porous nature of the sandstone at the former. They also imply that evaporation would be less if Lake Powell were drained, seeming to imply that it has a high ratio of surface area to volume.
http://www.glencanyon.org/glen_canyon/failed [glencanyon.org]
http://kuer.org/post/new-study-quantifies-water-lost-seepage-lake-powell [kuer.org]
https://summitcountyvoice.com/2013/07/07/water-study-identifies-major-leakage-from-lake-powell/ [summitcountyvoice.com]
http://knpr.org/knpr/2016-05/could-draining-lake-powell-save-lake-mead [knpr.org]