[Ranger Joe - on left] John, this is a great idea man, meeting out here this morning,
having coffee on the rim, watching the canyon filled with the day.
What a place, great idea before we go to work!
[Ranger John] Well, I know...
I mean it's just, you know, coming out here in the morning really kind of
reminds you of why we're here and what we're protecting.
You know, this is great and just, you know, have a little bit of
calm before the shift starts. It's nice.
[Ranger Joe] That's right, good way to get leveled out for the day.
[Ranger John] A little bit of breeze, the animals are
still out at this time of day.
[Ranger Joe] Special place that's for sure.
[Ranger John] It is, it absolutely is.
[Ranger Joe] Just, anywhere you look.
[male visitor] Hey mister ranger, can we ask you a question?
[Ranger John] Sure. [Ranger Joe] Morning, how you doing today?
[male visitor] Good, it's a beautiful morning here the grandest of canyons.
(Ranger Joe chuckles)
[female visitor] Yeah, we were just chatting and walking along the rim sipping our coffee and we
noticed that there are some buildings down in the canyon off in that
gray plateau with all the trees...
[Ranger John] Right.
[female visitor] What are they?
[Ranger Joe] Well, those, the buildings at this end of the trees, those are ranger facilities.
[Ranger Joe] We have a first aid station down there.
That is, that whole area is Indian Garden Campground...
[female visitor] okay
Ranger Joe] and that's those buildings at this end are ranger facilities.
And this white building that you see in the middle of the trees, that is the pump house
that brings all the water to the South Rim.
[male visitor] Really?
[female visitor] It doesn't come from the rim?
[Ranger Joe] We have no fresh water source here on the South Rim.
So, all the water that we use comes from the North Rim.
It's piped down through the Bright Angel Canyon on the opposite side,
across the river, and up to this pump house.
And this pump house pushes it up the rest of the way.
[male visitor] But where exactly does that water come from?
[Ranger John] It's actually a fresh water spring that's on the other side of the canyon.
Since the water table here is too deep for us to actually be able to drill all
the way down and maybe affect how water flows underneath, uh, where we're standing.
We get it all from the North Rim.
So a fresh water spring comes all the way to Indian Garden
and then that pump house that you see pumps it three thousand feet
up to the rim.
[male visitor] Oh my gosh.
[Ranger John] So, that's what's in our coffee!
[male visitor] (chuckles) Well good! [female visitor] Wow!
[Ranger Joe] It's what makes it so goodâthe journey this water makes to get here!
[male visitor] Yes! [Ranger Joe] Actually, this roaring springs, the pipeline
where it picks the water up on
roaring springs on the north side, by the time it travels all the way north rim it
has come through pipelines for over 12 and a half miles.
[female visitor] Woah! [Ranger Joe] Which is pretty interesting and it's an aging system it
was built in the 60s and it's had it has its common problems
a lot of fractures a lot of brakes we average about 30 breaks a year on this pipeline.
[female visitor] That's a lot!
[Ranger Joe] Each one involves water being shut off to the South Rim.
[male visitor] Yeah. [Ranger Joe] So it's a situation to where the water is good and clean but it does have its
problems getting here on occasion. So...
[female visitor] So, how big is the pipeline?
'Cause, I'm guessing you'd need a lot of water for a national park, right?
[Ranger John] You need a lot of water. The pipe is only about that big around
but it's constantly pumping from those pumps down there.
We've got two, uh, 500-horsepower pumps down there that are constantly running
and our third backup pump in case those two shut down is a 700-horsepower pump.
Uh, what we do a million million gallons a day?
[Ranger Joe] A million gallons a day.
[Ranger John] Yep, so it's a lot, it's constantly
running and it's it's flying up the, flying through that pipe lots and lots
of pressure. Especially coming from the bottom up to the top.
[male visitor] Yes. [Ranger John] There's a lot of pressure.
So, when we get even minute cracks in it, uh, they tend to, they tend to, you know,
shoot out little geysers.
[male visitor] Like a geyser, yeah! (female visitor chuckles)
[Ranger John] Yeah, but because it's been around since 1970, the walls of the pipe have
grown thinner and thinner, you know, through that amount of use
and that's why we're having so many more fractures.
[male visitor] Why can't they just get the water out of the river?
[Ranger John] Well, that was allocated a long time agoâ back in the 1930s when the idea
for the Southwest United States was about developing cities.
You know, obviously, you know, things are changing...the
population centers they're taking a lot more water
than initially was thought just because we have more people around. So, you know,
maybe in the future policies will kind of change a little bit
but, um, Western United States water policy is pretty contentious and
so, it's not something that's easy. You know, we, the,
the laws are in place based on the population that was around in the 1930s.
[male visitor] All fresh water is valuable.
[Ranger John] It is. It absolutely is, yeah.
[female visitor] So, you said this pipeline was built in the 60s?
[Ranger John] Yeah, 1960s. The initial pipeline I think was completed in 1967 or 68
and then we had a 1500-year level flood down in the canyon.
[female visitor] Wow! [Ranger John] Which wiped out about five miles of that pipeline and so then they had to
rebuild it again. And it was completed about 1970.
[female visitor] How did all that water get here before the pipeline was built,
because there were people still coming to the park before that?
[Ranger Joe] That's an interesting story in itself.
The Santa Fe Railroad built this rail spur that comes into Grand Canyon.
That was completed in 1901 and as the park began to develop,
actually, Grand Canyon wasn't made a national park until 1919â
So, to get fresh water in here the Santa Fe Railroad would actually,
would bring the water in and tank cars. Sometimes up to 100,000 gallons of water a day.
[male visitor] Hmm. [female visitor] Wow.
[Ranger Joe] They outgrew that process rather
quickly and then beyond that, the Park Service, in 1935, decided to tap
Garden Creek down near the Indian Garden. They pumped water
up to the rim for a long time as well. But it soon became clear that any park
development, any expansion plans, more water was going to need to be found.
And that's when the plan started hitting the drawing board about
the trans-canyon pipeline that runs from Roaring Springs.
[female visitor] Are there other springs in the nearby area like Roaring Springs or would that be like...?
[Ranger John] Not that big and not on the South Rim.
Um, the way the landscape is tilted, uh, if any water falls on the South Rim,
that goes off toward Williams and Flagstaff, to the south.
[female visitor] Interesting. [Ranger John] But because that landscape on the North Rim
is tilted toward the river, rain and snow melt
seeps down into the ground and then flows toward the river.
I don't know if Roaring Springs is THE biggest but is one of the biggest
springs that we have on the north side. So, yes there are other springs but not
with the volume of water that comes out of there.
Because Roaring Springs a significant contributor
to Bright Angel Creek on the other side of the canyon and that's why we have
this huge canyon on the other side, because that has eroded toward the
Colorado River. [Male visitor] Yes.
[Ranger John] So yeah, it's it's a pretty big
spring, it's not the only one but it's it's one of the biggest.
[male visitor] So we do hope it continues to roar! [Ranger John] Yeah! (group laughs)
[Ranger Joe] Yeah, and we hope it very loudly.
[male visitor] We need that water... [Ranger John] Keeps our coffee tasting good.
[male visitor] or else we wouldn't have coffee in the mornings.
[Ranger Joe] Well, that's just said when you turn the spigot on you think
well this is, it's typical waterflow like we would but what it takes to get it to
the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is a
little bit more of a, little bit more of a back story than
what you would just... turning the spigot on and then having it there.
[female visitor] I was thinking do you guys,
with all the pipeline breaks, do you ever run out of water?
[Ranger John] Sometimes. If you if you head down even right now, if you
go down to Mile-and-a-Half Rest House on
Bright Angel, you can hear hissing going on.
(pipe hissing)
And that is from a break in the pipeline. So, that's one of the
8 to 30 breaks that we get per year. There have been breaks that have
been massive enough that the Grand Canyon has had to haul,
truck water in from the south. And you get it up to the canyon.
I think they did that...I don't know, what, did they do it forâa month?
[Ranger Joe] 1995, they had a massive landslide and it fractured the pipeline out and
the Park Service had to haul water in for one month
and it cost them $5,000,000.
[male visitor] Hm, sure is valuable. [female visitor] Yeah.
[Ranger John] I mean, we were talking about the age of the pipes. Even when they were considering,
when they were finishing the product, and
they kind of had in their heads about how much that they would need it,
the life of that pipeline ended about 17 years ago.
And so, the anticipation was that it would be replaced by 17 years ago.
That's how far beyond, you know, having to replace it we are right now.
So, we're using band-aids right now.
[female visitor] Gotcha. [male visitor] how does the the pipeline cross the river?
[Ranger John] Yeah, a lot of people think that the pipeline goes underneath the river or
is laying on the bed of the of the bottom of the river,
but it actually crosses at a place that's called the Silver Bridge.
There are two bridges down at the bottom. One's the Silver Bridge
and one is the Black Bridge. The Black Bridge has been around for quite some time.
The Silver Bridge is a little bit newer
but, that is, it's a walking bridge as well as
what holds that pipeline coming across. So, it's actually
above the river. [male visitor] Yes.
[Ranger John] Because if you think about the fluctuating
rates of how much water is going through the river, that could put a lot of stress
on a pipeline if it was underwater. [male visitor] Sure.
[Ranger John] So, it is suspended underneath the Silver Bridge and that's where we
have some other utilitiesâsome power that's going
down to Phantom Ranch from this side. So, there's all kinds of
things that go into play trying to keep this place open for visitors.
[female visitor] Yeah, I don't know what I'd do if there was no water and I couldn't
have my coffee in the morning! (laughs)
[male visitor] And it is good coffee.
[Ranger Joe] It is good coffee
and it's all in the water. [Ranger John] Well, yeah, most of it's
in the water but I'll have to admit this sitting here having coffee,
you know, that adds to it quite a bit.
[Ranger Joe] Yeah, I think instant coffee would taste good here.
[Ranger John] Yeah [female visitor] For sure!
[male visitor] Everything tastes better here looking at this grandest of canyons.
[Ranger Joe] Well John, it's about time we get to work.
[Ranger John] Yeah, we've got about 20 minutes before our shift starts.
Great to have you guys come by!
[female visitor] Yeah, Thank you so much, Thanks for answering all of our questions!
Sorry we took up so much your time this morning!
[Ranger John] This is why we're here though. I mean, yeah, we're here for the visitors.
[Ranger Joe] Yeah, we see some pretty crazy responses.
People turn look out here and they'll turn around and go no way.
[Ranger John] Yup, they'll reach out with their hands like this...
[female visitor] That's what I was doing! (group laughs)
Awesome, well thank you all so much, have a great day.
[Ranger John] Well, maybe see you later today. [female visitor] Cool!
[Ranger Joe] Good to have some information on how your water gets there.
[female visitor] Yeah. Thank you all! [male visitor] Okay.
[Ranger Joe] Thank you and enjoy your park!
[female visitor] Thank you! [male visitor] See you later.
[Ranger Joe] Bye bye.
[Ranger John] Cheers!