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Providing. for agriculture. community and homes primary' purpose Its basic business to to provide Irrigation and municipal water, and the suc- cess of that function depends upon massive construction In the Dolores RIver Project. SIxteen years after It was authorized by congress and six years after construction was started, the $400 mI1lIon Dolores Project Is beginning to take shape. All of some nine contracts presently underway on the Dolores Project are on time. Work Is vlrtuslly com- pleted on McPhee Dam and Great CUt Dike. "It's a very well- constructed dam," Bureau of Reclamation Engineer MIke Rasmussen said of the $74 million structure which looms 270 feet from the floor d. the Dolores River Valley. Contractor was the Guy F. AtkInson Construction Co. Located about nine miles downriver from the town of Dolores, McPhee Dam will back Its reservoir waters to the edge of the commwlity and west to Great CUt DIke. Building d. the dam and dike took about fow-years. DedIcation ceremonies for McPhee Dam will be held Saturday, Aug. 25, at 11 a,m. In a field about a half-mile down-6tream from the struc- ture. Participants can get to the site by driving to a road north of Pleasant View and then to the Bradfield Bridge and upriver on the Lone Dome Road. Obayashl'(;umI, Ltd., con- tractor for construction of the $12 mIIIIon Dolores Tunnel and Cana1 also has nearly completed Its two-year task, A mIle-plus-long tunnel will take water from McPhee Reservoir just below Dolores and transport It Into the Mon- tezums Valley IrrIgation Co. system. Installation of machinery has nearly been completed In the tunnel and canal and various structures housing It are also completed. A giant s1pbon Is in place to transport the canal water across Hartman Draw. The canal will carry a capacity of 500 second-feet of water Into the MVI system and also to the Cortez treat- ment plant and to the town of Towaoc, At Great CUt DIke, a huge tunne1 reaches far out Into what Is now Sage Hen Flat which will be under water, GoIng under the dike, the tun- nel spUta, sending one stream Into the canal that feeds into Narragulnnep Reservoir. Through the other side, the water will go into a large P'".,pll1g plant now under. construction. Part will con- tinue (II through to the canal that leads to the LewIs area. The llther part of the water will be pumped Into a pipe and then Into the Dove Creek Canal which will lead some 35 miles through the dry1ands area providing irrigation to the fanners there. At the end of the canal, Monument Canyon Reservoir will be built to provide munlc- ple-Industrla1 water to Dove Creek. The first "reach" of the Dove Creek Canalis already under construction. Another canal system Is to . be combined with existing MVI facilities to provide irrigation water to the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reser- vation. About six to eight years of construction remain on the Dolores Project. Then the Dolores Water Conservancy DIstrIct will gradually take . over operation of the project factlltles. Huge amounts of other detalls remain, such as the canals, ditches and six more pumping plants, and two hydroelectric plants. A permanent beadquarters has been constructed In Cor- tez and a field station at - Great CUt Dike will be the center of operatlollll. McPhee Reservoir, with a capacity of 381,100 acre-feet, of which 229,000 will be ac- tive, will provide 90,900 acre- feet of water a year for irrigation of 61,600 acres of land In Montezums and Dolores counties. Cortez, Towaoc, Dolores and the water district will share some 8,700 acre-feet. Although the last bit of con- struction Is still years away, it will only be a couple of years until the water begins running through part of the system and the Dolores Project will be officially In operation.