(CN) — Recent legislation by the Navajo Nation has awakened a sleeping giant: Grand Canyon Escalade, a 420-acre tourist attraction planned for the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon near the confluence of the Colorado and little Colorado rivers.
Confluence Partners, a Scottsdale developer, unveiled its proposal for the development in 2012 to national controversy. If passed by the Navajo Nation Council in October, developers would be authorized to build accommodations, restaurants, retail shops, a cultural center and — most notably — a 1.4-mile aerial tramway designed to shuttle 10,000 daily visitors from the canyon rim down to a restaurant and amphitheater near the canyon floor.
Escalade's opponents include conservationists who are concerned about potential environmental impacts of the project.
"We're talking about every type of pollution," said Katie Davis, public lands campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Water, noise, light, air, and actual debris in the vicinity are inescapable."
Davis said "habitat fragmentation" caused by the development could further threaten the Mexican spotted owl and two fish species, the humpback chub and razorback sucker.
"Large-scale development disrupts habitat and has many indirect effects, often unforeseen ones, that would be counterproductive to recovery and de-listing, which is the ultimate goal," Davis said.
All three species are included on a list of 25 animals the National Park Service identifies as "endangered, threatened, and sensitive" and inhabit the Grand Canyon portion of the Colorado River.
Mexican spotted owls, a threatened species, live mostly in old-growth forests where they face wildfire, drought and starvation. They also nest in caves and cliffs within narrow canyons, but it is unknown if any of the birds nest in the immediate area of the proposed tramway.
"Critical habitat is essential to the conservation of the species for one reason or another," Davis said. "So even if owls are not present, the area is important to long-term survival and recovery."
Kevin Dahl, Arizona program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, echoed Davis's concerns about the humpback chub; its population is limited to six critical habitats, including the confluence. The Arizona Game and Fish Department lists human-caused change to natural river flows as a primary threat to the fish.
"It's a very significant area for breeding," Dahl said.
Environmental concerns overlap with looming logistical uncertainties: sewer and water services, electricity and other resources necessary to accommodate 3 million yearly visitors.
Confluence Partners did not return requests for comment. In a written statement on Escalade's website, the developers say water is scarce in the area due to a lack of funds for building infrastructure. They plan to tap into a "large, self-replenishing aquifer" for the project and then provide the surrounding community with access to the pipelines.
Dahl said using the aquifer at such a high rate will affect the Grand Canyon's many seeps and springs, precious resources that provide the base flow of the Colorado River and support an array of biological life.
And Davis noted there are also a number of species, especially invertebrates, which researchers are still discovering.
"Each spring or seep is sort of like an island ecosystem. They could exist in one spring and that's it," Davis said.
As an advocate for national parks, Dahl also opposes Escalade as a general threat that he believes will cheapen and commercialize the experience of the Grand Canyon.