Page 1 of 1

Grand Canyon flushed

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:08 am
by ne1410s
I think the newsperson said with 300,000 gallons a second. Enough to fill the Empire State Building in 20 minutes.

This was done intentionally.

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:12 am
by SportsFan68
Yeah, RadioDude said it was an attempt to rebuild the sandbars, which is flat out nuts. The sand they need to make sandbars is back of the dam clear up where the water starts to slow at the mouths of the San Juan and Colorado rivers. I think siltout date is something like 2100.

Makes you want to become a Monkey Wrencher.

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:15 am
by Appa23
SportsFan68 wrote:Yeah, RadioDude said it was an attempt to rebuild the sandbars, which is flat out nuts. The sand they need to make sandbars is back of the dam clear up where the water starts to slow at the mouths of the San Juan and Colorado rivers. I think siltout date is something like 2100.

Makes you want to become a Monkey Wrencher.
I am just posting to note that we currently are executing a program to rebuild thouands of acres of shallow water habitat and emerging sandbar habitat on the Missouri River, related to the recovery of endangered and threatened species.

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:20 am
by themanintheseersuckersuit
SportsFan68 wrote:Yeah, RadioDude said it was an attempt to rebuild the sandbars, which is flat out nuts. The sand they need to make sandbars is back of the dam clear up where the water starts to slow at the mouths of the San Juan and Colorado rivers. I think siltout date is something like 2100.

Makes you want to become a Monkey Wrencher.

There's lots of silting upriver of Powell's Landing at the head of Lake Mead, presumably that sand and silt mostly passed through the Canyon.

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:21 am
by earendel
SportsFan68 wrote:Yeah, RadioDude said it was an attempt to rebuild the sandbars, which is flat out nuts. The sand they need to make sandbars is back of the dam clear up where the water starts to slow at the mouths of the San Juan and Colorado rivers. I think siltout date is something like 2100.

Makes you want to become a Monkey Wrencher.
As I understood the report on NPR this morning the rapid release of the water will churn up the silt from the bottom and deposit it downriver at the places where the buildup used to be.

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:24 am
by PlacentiaSoccerMom
We went rafting on the Colorado River a few years ago. The water just below the dam is incredibly cold, somewhere in the high 40's to low 50's. Nobody would do more than put their feet in the water, except for Emma, who went swimming in it.

From what I understand the change in water temperature due to the dam being built has caused a decline in many species of native fish.

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:05 pm
by Chronic Diarrhea
I could use that kind of water pressure in my commode...... Ooooooohhhh!!!!

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:30 pm
by SportsFan68
themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:
SportsFan68 wrote:Yeah, RadioDude said it was an attempt to rebuild the sandbars, which is flat out nuts. The sand they need to make sandbars is back of the dam clear up where the water starts to slow at the mouths of the San Juan and Colorado rivers. I think siltout date is something like 2100.

Makes you want to become a Monkey Wrencher.

There's lots of silting upriver of Powell's Landing at the head of Lake Mead, presumably that sand and silt mostly passed through the Canyon.
SuitDude's right. Let's try again:

Yeah, RadioDude said it was an attempt to rebuild the sandbars, which is flat out nuts. The sand they need to make sandbars is back of the dam clear up where the water starts to slow at the mouths of the San Juan and Colorado rivers or is back of Hoover Dam clear up where the water starts to slow at the beginning of Lake Mead.

PSM's right, the released water is the coldest in the lake. It's an environmental disaster except for one thing -- without it, there would probably be more nuclear power plants or air polluting coal-fired plants.

Pick your poison.