Development at Grand Canyon may dry up spring water

Monday, Nov. 3, 1997 | 11:28 a.m.

Hidden behind walls of rock at the Grand Canyon's south rim, ancient springs reveal themselves by throwing water out along the cliffs, giving rise to plants and wildlife.

Proposed development that would tap into groundwater, however, could cause the 30 or so such springs to eventually disappear, a UNLV hydrologist says.

Dave Kreamer, director of UNLV's Water Resources Management Department, has studied the canyon's water since the 1970s. In the past five years, as park activities have increased beyond previous annual increments, he has intensified his work.

Eleven million people a year -- up from 5 million today -- could be coming to the Grand Canyon by 2010, he says.

Kreamer says development to accommodate the influx could someday dry up the springs, which are fed by waters that could be thousands of years old. This is because the spring waters are linked to the area groundwater, he says, and pumping the groundwater is a crucial part of development plans.

"Thirty, 40, 100 years from now, we'll know the results of this experiment of pumping groundwater," Kreamer says.

One developer, Tom De Paolo, managing partner of Canyon Forest Village, has proposed building homes for the many people working at Grand Canyon National Park. He has also proposed a 3,000-room resort, an educational center and parking for thousands of cars and campers.

De Paolo foresees Canyon Forest Village, seven miles from the canyon's rim, as a gateway to the national park.

More than five years ago, he approached the federal government with a proposal to exchange 2,200 acres of private land in the Kaibab National Forest for about 650 acres of federal land near the town of Tusayan. By law, the private and federal lands must be of equal value.

The U.S. Forest Service is considering five alternatives in a draft environmental impact statement for the resort village.

The plans range from no action to the original proposal by the developer. The Forest Service is expected to announce a preferred alternative next spring and a final decision by summer.

Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall supports the Canyon Forest Village concept.

"The new thinking about big parks like the Grand Canyon now is you want to pull back from the rim," Udall, Interior chief in the Kennedy administration, said in a telephone interview from his New Mexico home.

"This concept was initially proposed five or six years ago and their lawyer was Bruce Babbitt," Udall says. Babbitt today is Interior secretary.

The development's scientists have agreed to address the springs problem by searching for water sources 30 miles from the canyon's rim, Kreamer says.

But Kreamer suggests convening a distinguished scientific panel, on the level of the National Academy of Sciences, to examine the impacts before development begins.