This proposal is less than five miles from Grand Canyon National Park and includes two concrete arch dams, one across a canyon east of the Little Colorado River and another on the Little Colorado River itself/Grand Canyon Trust, Stephanie Smith
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday is expected to rule on a company's request to pursue a permit to build two hydroelectric dams on the Little Colorado River not far upstream from the main Colorado River as it flows into Grand Canyon National Park.
The plan envisioned by Pumped Hydro Storage, LLC, of Phoenix, is to construct one dam rising 240 feet above the Little Colorado and another 140 feet high. The proposed Navajo National Salt Trail Canyon Pumped Storage Project would also include six 250-megawatt, turbine-generator units, for a total installed capacity of 1,500 megawatts, a 20-mile-long, 500-kilovolt transmission line from the powerhouse to the existing Moenkopi switchyard, and related facilities.
At peak capacity, such a setup would have an average annual generation of 3,300 gigawatt-hours, according to FERC.
The current filing, if approved by FERC, would not allow the company to begin construction. Rather, it would "grant the permit holder priority to file a license application during the permit term."
Opponents fear that if the project is eventually approved, it would harm the endangered humpback chub and most definitely disrupt the ecosystem within Grand Canyon National Park.
Less than a half mile from the boundary with Grand Canyon National Park, this project also includes two dams. It appears the project's lower reservoir would leave a Hopi sacred site underwater/Grand Canyon Trust, Stephanie Smith
Comments
It will never be developed, and all of the enormous outpouring of opposition -- while appropriate in its messaging -- was generally an unfortunate waste of people's time and attention. A preliminary permit filing with FERC can make it look like an actual project is on the horizon, but the fact is that most preliminary permits don't lead to any actual development, particularly in the case of concepts proposed in highly sensitive locations like this. The party who filed it is probably feeling rather embarrassed right now.
I hope you're right; but, I seem to remember that we never thought Trump would get into power; we never expected protections for Bears Ears National Monument and sensitive parts of Grand Staircase Escalante would be trashed; we never expected efforts to rescind protections against logging in the Tongass; we never expected to lose voting rights protections; we never expected Steve Bannon would ever be considered more than a couch-camping homeless crackpot; we never expected an American president to publicly defend white nationalists marching to the "Jews will not replace us" chant; we never expected anyone like Matthew Whitaker would ever be our Attorney General; we never expected our own government would be separating toddlers from their parents and confining them in chainlink cages for weeks at a time; we never expected to see neoNazism become a significant movement in our own country; we never expected a twisted psychotic like Stephen Miller would ever be a member of Whitehouse staff, whispering in a senile president's ear; we never expected one of the major political parties to be okay with any of this, much less all of it... Be vigilant and be afraid; in fact, be very afraid; the next shoe to drop could be something we never expected.
you are totally right. I agree 1000%.