The AP is reporting that next month the U.S. Geological Survey will stage a controlled flood of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon via the Glen Canyon Dam in order to learn whether they can approximate the natural conditions of the river.

THE SITUATION Late spring, 1983. Heavy snowmelt and steady rains create the worst flooding in nearly a century in the Colorado River basin. Lake Powell, a 185-mile-long reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border, is the hardest hit. Both spillways at the reservoir's 710-foot-high Glen Canyon Dam must be opened for the first time to prevent the reservoir from breaching its top.