Grand Canyon’s only water pipeline fails, prompting shutdown of overnight hotel stays

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — The main pipeline providing water to the Grand Canyon National Park has failed after a series of breaks, leading to a sudden and sweeping shutdown of overnight hotel stays during one of the busiest times of the year for the famous tourist destination.

Water restrictions will run throughout the Labor Day holiday when hotels are near or at capacity. It’s an unprecedented outcome, even for a pipeline with a long history of frequent failures.

Since July 8, the park has faced challenges with its water supply, and no water is currently being pumped to either the canyon’s south or north rims, officials said.

Heidi Zahner Younts, of Iowa City, Iowa, said Wednesday in a comment on the park’s Facebook page that she had “the trip of a lifetime” with her daughter planned for the weekend, calling the situation sad.

By Wednesday evening, however, she told The Associated Press via Facebook message that she was able to book a different hotel outside the park. She said she hoped the water restrictions would mean “less traffic and people.”

The 12.5 mile-long (20 kilometer-long) Transcanyon Waterline, originally built in the 1960s, supplies potable water for facilities on the South Rim and inner canyon. Park officials say it has exceeded its expected lifespan.

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Since 2010, there have been more than 85 major breaks that disrupted water delivery, but none that have forced what park officials call “Stage 4” water restrictions. That is, until four recent significant breaks.

Under these water restrictions, visitors won’t be able to stay overnight starting Thursday, including at El Tovar, Bright Angel Lodge, Maswik Lodge and Phantom Ranch. The impacts weren’t immediately obvious on Wednesday night, as some hotel restaurants continued serving food and cars filled parking lots at the South Rim.

Hotels located outside the park in the town of Tusayan, Arizona, will not be impacted, and the park will remain open during the day.

Carved by the Colorado River and known for its vast desert landscapes, the Grand Canyon welcomed nearly 523,000 visitors last August and more than 466,000 visitors last September.

Josh Coddington, communications director at the Arizona Office of Tourism, said he expects an uptick in calls from people wanting to know if they can visit the Grand Canyon.

“The Grand Canyon is known not only throughout the U.S., but throughout the world, and people love visiting it,” he said.

While the park isn’t entirely closed, any perception that it is could negatively impact the cities and towns where tourists sleep, shop and dine on their way to the canyon, including Flagstaff, Williams and Tusayan on the south side and Cameron on the east side.

Park officials hope to restore full operational status for overnight guests on the South Rim as quickly as possible.

Complicating restoration efforts, however, is that the breaks occurred in a narrow part of the canyon known as “the box,” an area susceptible to rock fall and with high temperatures this time of the year. A photo of one of the recent breaks released by park officials shows a funnel of water spewing from the pipe and across the slim canyon.

“It’s definitely a challenging place to be and have a pipeline break on you,” Baird said, noting safety concerns for the crews tasked with repairing the damage.

The pipeline failure comes amid a $208 million rehabilitation project of the waterline by the National Park Service that began recently. Upgrades to the associated water delivery system are expected to be completed in 2027.

The park says it wants to meet water supply needs for 6 million annual visitors and its 2,500 year-round residents.

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Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press journalists Walter Berry in Phoenix, Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed to this report.