Grand Canyon National Park Initiate Water Conservation Measures Due to Construction.

Residents, workers, and frequent visitors to the Grand Canyon National Park are no strangers to water conservation measures. Due to the Grand Canyon’s location and the large number of people who visit the national park, it is often necessary to conserve water. Most of the time, these measures are taken due to drought but currently, the water conservation is in preparation for construction work.

From Monday, November 11 th through Monday, November 18 th , the South Rim, including Desert View is making previsions for the scheduled construction taking place at the Indian Garden South pump house. This construction will give maintenance crews the opportunity to install pipes for the use of a temporary pump at the South pump house. This temporary pump will relieve the strain on the permanent pump, allowing the Indian Garden North pump house replacement project to continue without issue.

This project has been in the works for a while now, starting on September 23, 2018. If everything goes according to plan, the project is expected to continue into May 2020.

While this might be a slight inconvenience to visitors to the park in May, it is ultimately adding safety and reliability to the park. The main phase of the project is to replace the current 1960s era pumps, which provide
water to the South Rim. This replacement is expected to increase water supply, water reliability, and pumping efficiency. Due to the growing demand increased park visitation places on the pumps, the harder it is to meet the requirements with the current equipment. While outages and conservation efforts are a constant theme throughout the Grand Canyon National Park’s history, the past five years has seen a significant upward trend of outages from the pumps. These outages have led to the need for multiple park- wide conservation restrictions within this time period.

Therefore, with any minor and scheduled inconvenience that results from this project, Grand Canyon enthusiasts can take solace in the idea that this is to better their overall experience. The plan is that replacing the pipes will greatly discontinue the number of annual, unplanned outages that have ravaged the park in recent years.

For those who are planning to visit the Grand Canyon during this timeframe, here are the water conservation measures that are in effect:
 No car or bus washing
 No watering of lawns or plants
 Utilizing low water cleaning techniques
 Reducing shower times and turning water off while brushing teeth

 Drinking water at restaurants will be provided by request

Additionally, water services at Indian Garden will be unavailable, in addition to seasonal closures. These seasonal closures include: Cottonwood Campground, North Kaibab Trailhead, Plateau Point, Supai Tunnel, and the Mile-and-a-Half and Three-Mile Rest houses.