WSP10987

• File Number: 8220.100.60
• Description: CRSP
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 5/21/1958
• Author: US Congress
• Title: Financial and Economic Analysis - Colorado River Storage Project and Participating Projects
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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COLORADO RIVER STORAGE PROJECT

Flanning Gorge unit
'Flaming Gorge Dam will be on the Green River, a major tributary
of the Colorado, in Ilortheastern Utah about 6 miles south and 20
miles west of the corner common to Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.
The dam will be a copcrete thin-arch structure rising about 495 feet,
above its foundation and about 445 feet above the river, It will have
a crest length of 1,27Q feet. The reservoir will have a total capacity
of about 3,930,000 aqre-feet and an (lrea of about 42,000 acres. It
will extend upstream 93 miles, nearly to the town of Green River, Wyo.
About 330,000 acre-feet of the rescrvoir capacity will be inactive.
The powerplant at tb,e dam will consist of 3 generating units with a
total installcd capacity of 108,000 kilowatts. A switchyard will be
constructed nearby.
Navaho unit
Navaho Dam will be constructed on t.he San Juan River in New
Mexico about 34 miles east of Farmington, The dam will be an
earth-fill structure 'about 385 fcet high above the river and nearly
3,800 fect long at the crest. N aV(lho Reservoir will provide water for
the Navaho Indian irHgation project, when that project is authorized
and constructed, and 'also will provide water directly or indirectly for
other potent.ial projccts in New Mexico. The rcservoir will have a
total capacity of 1,700:,000 acre-feet and an inactive capacity of 672,000
acre-fcet, of which about 70,000 acre-feet will be dead storage. The
reservoir when full wi!1 inundatc 1.5,300 acrcs and will extend approxi-
mately 34 miles up the San Juan River. Although the outlet works
are such that a powerplant could be installed at a later date, no
powerplant is includ~d in the present plan. Recreational facilities
will be provided at the rcservoir.
Ourecanti unit
The Curecanti unit will develop storage and power possibilities
along part or all of aAO-mile stretch of a deep canyon section of the
Gunnison River abo"e tbe Black Canyon of the Gunnison National
Monument and below the town of Gunnison, Colo. In order to
pr~vent th~ iDundatiqn of land near t,he town, the authorizing legis-
latIon prOVIdes that--'-
... .
lie * * the Curecantl Dam (now called Blue Mesa Dam) shall be constructed to
a "height whioh will imp:ound not le88 than 940,000 acre-feet of water or will
create a reservoir of suehj greater capacity as can he obtained by n. high waterline
located at 7,520 feet abaye mean sea level. lie * *
The act also reqyirestbat construction sball not be undertaken until
further en~ineermg and economic investigations bave been made and
until tbe Secretary of tbe Interior bas certified to the CODli'ess and
tbe President that in his judgment tbe benefits of the unit will exceed
its coste. '
Bureau of Reclamation reconnaissance studies indicate that a favor-
able plan, consistent !with the autborizing act, would include a series
of four dame, reservoirs, powerplants, (lnd switchyards. The develop-
men ts in order moving downstream would be known as the Blue
Mesa, Narrow Gauge, Morrow Point, and Crystal. Collectively, the
reeervoire would have a capacity of about 1 million acre-feet. The
powerplant, with an! inetalled generating capacity of about 159,000
kilowatts, would de"elop a maximum of about 940 feet of static
power bead.

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