In March and April 1996, a planned high-flow experiment at Glen Canyon Dam released water at a rate of 1,275 cubic metres per second for eight days as scientists studied how the surge would affect the Colorado River downstream. The purpose was not to generate power or cope with an unexpected surge. It was to test whether an artificial flood could repair some of the damage the dam itself had caused to the river downstream, particularly the sandbars and beaches that had been quietly disappearing for more than thirty years.
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