How did last year’s Dragon Bravo Fire impact Grand Canyon water supply?

Northern Arizona University researchers are studying how last year’s Dragon Bravo Fire impacted the water supply at the Grand Canyon.

The blaze, which was ignited by lightning on July 4, 2025, burned more than 145,500 acres on the North Rim, making it the seventh-largest wildfire in the state’s history.

How Grand Canyon National Park gets its water

The Transcanyon Waterline pulls water from Roaring Springs and delivers it throughout Grand Canyon National Park.

Snowmelt on the Kaibab Plateau feeds the aquifer that supplies Roaring Springs.

“There is work to update and change the source of water in the Transcanyon water system, but the changes will really provide water from all the springs, not just one spring,” Abe Springer, professor of eco-hydrogeology at Northern Arizona University’s School of Earth and Sustainability, told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

The burn scar on the Kaibab Plateau changed the hydrology of the landscape and, as a result, changed the quality of the water that seeps through the ground.

Springer said the water has become more turbid, meaning more sediment is suspended in the water.

Researchers are actively monitoring changes in the water quality, such as the amount of suspended solids moving through the water, to provide timely updates to the park’s utility.

“We now have satellite telemetered real-time instruments documenting the turbidity, temperature and the amount of dissolved things in the water at these sites,” Springer said.

Snowmelt on the Kaibab Plateau is already turbid, but Springer said he worries it will become too turbid to consume after seeping through the burn scar.

There is no filtration system at Roaring Springs, but park officials do treat the water with chlorine, which helps with turbidity a little.

Springer said the concern is that the high-severity burn may alter how water infiltrates the soil and rock, potentially allowing more sediment and mineral particles to be carried into the groundwater system until the burned area recovers.

Because this past winter and spring didn’t see much rain and snow, the team of researchers won’t be able to release their official findings until after the monsoon season.

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