Grand Canyon to replace water pipeline

Grand Canyon National Park officials plan to replace much of a decades-old, problem-plagued pipeline system that’s forced officials to ask hotels and residents to wash dishes and laundry less frequently and backpackers to drink treated creek water.

Crews regularly have to descend into the northern Arizona canyon by trail or helicopter to fix costly rockslide-caused breaks to the 6-inch aluminum pipe that supplies water to hotels, campgrounds and other facilities.

The breaks have forced the park to periodically impose water conservation measures or even temporarily restrict reservations at canyon hotels until repairs are complete.

The Grand Canyon, which received nearly 6 million visitors in 2016, is one of the most visited U.S. national parks.

Preliminary plans call for ferrying pipe pieces and equipment by helicopter into the canyon to replace miles of pipeline serving the South Rim. That pipeline extends from springs located partway up the North Rim, down to and across the Colorado River in the canyon bottom and up to a pump station partway up the South Rim.

The National Park Service is seeking public comment on several plans to replace the pipe.

According to park officials, work on the new pipeline would start in early 2020, take three to four years to complete and cost $75 million to $124 million.