An endangered fish fends for its existence in the cold waters of the Colorado River.
Riparian sandbars where boaters like to camp continue to wear away year after year.
These are some of the environmental issues eating away at the Grand Canyon, and scientists like Mark Schmeeckle.
Schmeeckle, a geography professor at ASU, has been researching those issues for about a year. Schmeekle, along with three graduate students, is working on a solution to the ongoing erosion of the Colorado River ecosystem.
"We're losing resources within the Grand Canyon," Schmeeckle said.
This issue was one topic discussed by Schmeeckle and others who participated in a symposium on the canyon's deterioration last week in Tempe.
The problem of sandbar erosion is nothing new, Schmeekle said. It all started when the Glen Canyon Dam was built in 1963.
The dam, which serves as a major power source for the southwestern U.S., led to the creation of Lake Powell and dramatically changed the natural habitat.
Waters that once ran warm and brown with sediment now are cold and clear.
A fish called the humpback chub is now endangered as a result of this change in habitat.
Held by U.S. Geological Survey, last week's symposium addressed concerns regarding the impact of Glen Canyon Dam on the Grand Canyon's downstream resources.
In spite of millions of dollars and 13 years of effort put into conserving the ecosystem, the symposium concluded that sandbars are continuing to decrease and the humpback chub population is still
deteriorating.
Solving those issues would entail millions more dollars, as temperature control devices would need to be installed and extra sediment would have to be dumped into the river.
For John Weisheit, conservation director of a non-profit environmental group called Living Rivers, the only solution is decommissioning the dam.
"We're losing the Grand Canyon," he said. "When you get down there and do a river trip, you're doing a funeral march."
Andrew Burnett, a graduate research assistant, is basing his thesis on the sandbar erosion.
He's built a plywood box that he will fill with sand and water and then test the effect of rapidly raising and lowering the water level.
That process, he said, is meant to recreate the water fluctuations created by the Glen Canyon Dam.
"When you get up in the morning, you turn on your computer and coffeemaker just like everyone else, and the power goes up," he said. "The dam then lets out more water to meet the demand."
Burnett also points out that while the dam presents environmental damage, dismantling it would be costly and might entail additional environmental damage.
Alternatives to hydroelectric energy would probably present problems, too.
"Would you rather use more coal power and create smog, or deal with nuclear power and all the issues that come along with that?" he said. "Or is it better to ruin a river to have clean energy?"
Reach the reporter at ann.censky@asu.edu.
