HydroelectricPowerintheUpperCOBasinHolsingerPresentation3507.pd

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CRSP Bringing power to the nation was cause for optimism during the darkest of days. During the Gr eat Depression, for example, one reservoirs newspaper hopefully predicted that all Americans would one day have electricity. At the time, only 10 per cent of Americans outside major cities have a total had electricity. Fifty years ago, Congress passed the CRSP to develop the water storage and power resources of the Upper Colorado River Basin. Today, these reservoirs are vital to the existence of towns, cities, industry and agriculture capacity in the West. The CRSP authorized the construction of Glen Canyon, the Aspinall Unit, Flaming Gorge and Navajo dams for the purpose of: of 34 million regulating the flow of the Colorado River, storing water for beneficial consumptive use, making it possible for the States of the Upper Basin to utilize, . . . [their compact apportionments,] acre-feet and providing for the reclamation of arid and semiarid land, for the control of floods, and for the gener ation of hydroelectric power, as an incident of the foregoing purposes . . . . 43 U.S.C. § 620. generate CRSP reservoirs changed enough the arid landscape. Power illuminated the West. With water and power available, towns sprang up and flourished. Pro- electricity ductive fields and orchards are now irrigated with the water conserved by reservoirs and used for to supply power production. Recreation has also flour- ished. Boating and fishing on CRSP nearly reservoirs infuses millions of dollars into local economies. And rafting, 6 million kayaking and fly-fishing have become popular activities downstream of the homes. reservoirs. The CRSP reservoirs have a total storage capacity of 34 million acre- feet and generate enough electricity to supply nearly 6 million homes. Roughly 25% of the nation’s food is grown on land irrigated by the Colorado River. Courtesy of the Bureau of Reclamation 6