On April 25, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied a Phoenix-based developer’s request for a preliminary permit for the Big Canyon Pumped Storage Project. The massive hydroelectric project would have dammed Big Canyon — a tributary canyon to the Little Colorado River Gorge — and would have pumped billions of gallons of groundwater near Grand Canyon National Park.
Travertine dams with electric blue warm carbonate water of the little colorado river. ADAM HAYDOCK
The project had faced strong opposition from several tribes including the Hopi, Havasupai, and most notably the Navajo Nation, on whose lands the project was proposed to be built.
The developer’s 2020 permit application had been pending for more than four years. The commission’s decision to deny the permit for Big Canyon Dam aligns with its new policy not to approve preliminary permits for projects on tribal lands without consent from the tribe on whose land a project would be built.
In February 2024, the commission denied permits for seven similar projects on Navajo Nation lands following concerns raised by the Navajo Nation government and several other tribes regarding the potential impacts of the projects on their lands and communities.
In the case of Big Canyon, the Navajo Nation government wrote directly to the commission opposing the project and listed concerns about water supply and other environmental and cultural sensitivities.
The would-be developer, Pumped Hydro Storage LLC, objected that its application predated the new policy requiring tribal consent. Nonetheless, the commission upheld its decision not to grant the preliminary permit for the Big Canyon project and emphasized the importance of tribal consultation and consent in projects proposed on tribal lands. The company did not appeal the decision.
After years of advocacy led by the Navajo grassroots group Save the Confluence, the Big Canyon Dam proposal is, at last, dead. Should the developer wish to pursue damming Big Canyon in the future, it would have to restart the process entirely, including submitting a new application and obtaining tribal consent.
Daryn Akei Melvin works as a Grand Canyon manager for the Grand Canyon Trust with a focus on addressing issues related to the Little Colorado River.
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