We absolutely can not survive in this world
without water.
And
Guaranteed water to the South Rim is in peril as
long as we have the existing pipeline
and infrastructure in place.
And, if we don’t have that,
then everybody goes home.
People live and migrate to places
where water is available.
The interesting thing is, if you look at the
archeological record of where people
of the past lived, and preferred to be,
and where people of the present live and
prefer to be, they’re the same places, because
they provide the exact same conditions:
water, shade and resources.
The genesis of the Trans-Canyon Pipeline was
as a means to provide secure water at a volume
that would meet the needs of the visitors coming
to the Grand Canyon and the development that
was occurring in the Grand Canyon
after World War 2.
Water in the Trans-Canyon Pipeline begins at
Roaring Springs and flows downhill, losing
2,740 feet in elevation to Phantom Ranch, and
then it lifts 1,300 feet in elevation up to Indian
Garden, and then rises another 3,000 feet by
positive pressure pumps - Up to the South Rim.
But to build the pipeline was a logistic challenge
like the Park Service had never undertaken,
especially for that time.
The contract for the Trans-Canyon Pipeline was
awarded in 1964 to Halverson Incorporated.
Elling Halverson had a penchant for choosing
logistically very difficult projects.
Everything had to be brought in by helicopter.
There were no roads.
It’s got 700 horizontal curves
and 1,200 vertical curves along the pipeline.
All those things together made it
an engineering marvel.
The Trans-Canyon Pipeline was intended to last
for 30 years.
It’s now coming onto 50 years, so it's
serviced us 20 years longer than anticipated.
So now as it ages with the grit that runs through
the system, it’s more and more susceptible to
breaking, and is breaking more frequently.
This is a sprayer.
It’s not a full blown break.
It’s hard to tell right now,
but I would guess it’s an old weld
that's just, you know, 40 years old, and it finally,
with the high pressures, has eaten through it.
And, its probably a little tiny pinhole or a crack,
but under the pressure,
it's putting out a lot of water.
We are going to get our sling loads in, and
our welder and our tools and we will excavate it.
When this pipeline breaks, its go time.
You have got to get down here
as soon as we can.
We're under a lot of pressure
to get the water back on, because,
Phantom has about a two or three day supply
and after that they start talking evacuations.
And, its not what we want to do.
This pipeline is so fragile,
everything with this pipeline is slow.
You go fast with any step, you're
are going to blow it somewhere else, so.
From step one to step 20, its slow
and meticulous - just to prevent another break.
Like all the other valves around here,
this valve is probably 30 to 40 years old.
And, It just - exceeded its life - at this point.
Everybody drinks water so its not
just one or two, or
a certain percentage of the population
that are relying on me, and my work.
Its everybody.
My very first week I was here, I went on a nice
long hike, I sat at the Arizona Room, and I drank
almost three pitchers of water. And the next day
I saw the Chief of Facilities and said, "Where
does our water come from? " He goes, " I am so
glad you asked. It’s this pipeline and it’s really
worn out and we are having all kinds of trouble
with it. " I said, " What are we doing about it?
What are we doing in the system? Have we
asked for help? " He goes, " Well its just been so
overwhelming of an idea and that we can never
get that much money, we really haven’t come up
with a long term strategy,
we are just fixing it as we go."
The money that it would take to repair this
pipeline, about 150 million dollars, was the
original estimate, is more than all parks get
over a three year period.
What what happen if we had a catastrophic
failure? The immediate impact would be an
economic ripple through the whole Southwest.
Northern Arizona would be in shock. The
economic engine of the park itself, easily 500
million a year, several thousand jobs here at the
canyon, and gateway communities in and
around the park. But what be lost is visitation.
We would have to literally send everybody home
Right now, underway, we have construction
project down at Phantom Ranch to replace
2,800 feet of the 15 miles. That 2,800 feet
is going to cost us about 3.5 million dollars,
its going to take several months
and it’s a good precursor to what the challenge
we have to replace the whole pipeline.
When you have a gorilla this big in your office,
you cannot just ignore it.
It’s there every single day.
We need to come up with a
long term strategy
for repair of the Trans-Canyon Pipeline
and we also have to come up with
public support and congressional support
to fund the replacement of that pipeline
and also for the park to
redirect its resources,
as limited as they are,
to make sure the number one critical
infrastructure piece
in the whole National Park Service,
and that is my opinion,
it is the Grand Canyon’s Trans-Canyon Pipeline
and it must be repaired.
This pipeline is the main artery for the
Grand Canyon. Without water we just would not
be able to have what we have here.
We got a real precious thing here,
this water, and we need to take care of it.