Now, more than 85 percent of their total population lives in the Grand Canyon, most in the Little Colorado River drainage. Humpback chub used to be found throughout the Colorado River drainage in interconnected desert streams. The Little Colorado River is just one more place where the demand for water resources puts native fish in the losing position. More than half of them are threatened or endangered. Arizona is home to over 30 species of native fish.

If the proposed hydroelectric projects move forward in the Little Colorado River, the warm, muddy water humpback chub have evolved to thrive in will stop behind the dam and be replaced with cool, clear water coming out downstream.

STEWART AITCHISON, Right: Green, clear Colorado Riverĭams fundamentally change the nature of desert rivers. Left: Muddy Colorado River, Middle: Blue Spring in the Little Colorado River. Why dams would be disastrous to humpback chub On fish research trips in the Grand Canyon, my colleagues and I would clamor to catch the first glimpse of the Little Colorado River, wondering if we’d see chalky blue waters, or, if the river was flooding, muddy brown. The trademark blue water comes from dissolved calcium carbonate, a mineral found in the rocks near the aptly-named Blue Spring, where the stream bubbles to the surface again in the lowest 13 miles of the gorge. Below Cameron, the wash carves a steep, narrow gorge as it drops into the Grand Canyon. By the time it flows down to Holbrook, Winslow, and Cameron, the water has mostly seeped underground. The Little Colorado River starts high in the White Mountains, near the Arizona-New Mexico border, as a small, clear ribbon of water. Humpback chub: the weird-looking fish you can’t help but love Damming one of their last remaining spawning areas would spell disaster for a species that has been around for millions of years. These dams are terrible ideas for several reasons, including that they would harm the river and the endangered fish species that reside here.Įarlier this week, a coalition of conservation groups, including the Grand Canyon Trust, filed a motion to intervene urging the federal government not to issue preliminary permits for the projects.Īs a former fish biologist in the Grand Canyon, my chief concern is the humpback chub - an endangered fish native to the Southwest that seeks refuge in the Little Colorado River.

News broke in September that a Phoenix-based company wants to build two hydroelectric projects on the Little Colorado River just upstream from its confluence with the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, a sacred place to many Native peoples. What did the humpback chub say when it ran into the wall? Dam. White Mesa Cultural and Conservation Areaīy Lisa Winters, Research and Stewardship Volunteer Coordinator.

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