Grand Canyon water supply expected back in weeks after deadly flood

National Park Service officials said Wednesday that a reliable water supply at the Grand Canyon should be restored in weeks, not months, despite a deadly flash flood that struck in late August. The flood, which killed two people and left one missing, did not damage most of a nearly complete pipeline upgrade, they said.

The project, known as the Transcanyon Waterline, is a 12.5-mile (20-kilometer) pipeline that supplies water to the South Rim and about 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village. Officials were just over a month away from completing the major upgrade when the flood hit.

Construction of a temporary water intake that matches the park's pre-flood pumping capacity will begin this week. Park officials are urging residents and tourists to continue conserving water while crews work on the more than $200 million repair and upgrade project.

"The damage to this old pipe is no longer relevant to our new solution," said Dave Black, deputy incident commander at the National Park Service's Western Incident Management Team. "Every gallon we conserve gives our crews more time to complete the work in the canyon."

The Aug. 29 flash flood triggered about 80 rescues, and search and rescue efforts are ongoing. It was the third time since August 2024 that overnight stays have been paused due to pipeline failures.

Residents have been asked to adopt significant water conservation measures to protect limited stored water on the South Rim, where most visitors go. Gloria Barrett, a longtime resident of Grand Canyon Village who works for a helicopter tour company, has shut off her water heater to help her household of four save water.

"That inhibits us from taking longer showers because the water's so cold, which is miserable," she said.

Barrett and her family have been eating on paper plates to avoid doing dishes and reusing cooking water for their dog. In her 10 years living inside the park, she said she has learned to get creative with conservation — the pipeline has broken more than 85 times since 2010 — but she has never seen damage this "extreme."

The pipeline, which has been in place nearly twice as long as intended, crosses rugged terrain from the South Rim down to the canyon floor and back up, providing drinking water and fire suppression.

Many families in Grand Canyon Village live paycheck to paycheck, Barrett said, and leaving "is not an option for us — it's not feasible." For the 27-year-old, who also owns a transport company shuttling tourists from rim to rim, hotel closures brought a wave of cancellations during what she called her busiest season.

Bing Pan, a tourism and recreation professor at Pennsylvania State University, noted that tourism supports the largely part-time, seasonal workforce on the South Rim. Even weeks of slowed service could be detrimental to their families.

"Workers in the park, who are paid around $15 to $20 per hour, usually don't have much savings," Pan said. "Natural disasters and slowed service flows could push them to the brink of leaving the area, devastating the local tourism economy."