Laserfiche WebLink
<br />From their respective headwaters, both forks flow southwesterly through narrow canyons <br /> <br />with a dense riparian overstory of deciduous vegetation. Downstream of the confluence, the <br /> <br />Dolores River flows 14.6 miles through a deep canyon to the city of Dolores. Routing reaches are <br /> <br />discussed in more detail in Section 6.7 and stream profiles are plotted on Plate 3. <br /> <br />Lost Canyon Creek enters the Dolores River at the downstream end ofthe city of Dolores. <br /> <br />From its headwaters above 10,000 feet in the La Plata Mountains, Lost Canyon Creek travels in a <br /> <br />westerly direction to 6,920 feet approximately 31 miles downstream at Dolores. The terrain is <br /> <br /> <br />undulating. Vegetation is mostly sagebrush and Pinon-juniper, with timber above 9,000 feet. The <br /> <br /> <br />Dolores River flows into McPhee Dam, which is 10 miles northwest from the town of Dolores in <br /> <br /> <br />Montezuma County, Colorado. <br /> <br />McPhee Dam and Reservoir was authorized by the Colorado River Basin Act of <br /> <br />September 30, 1968 (Public Law 90-537), as a participating project under the Colorado River <br /> <br />Storage Act of April 11 , 1956 (Public Law 84-485). Construction was completed in 1983 and <br /> <br />filling of the Reservoir began in March 1984. The dam is owned by the U.S. Bureau of <br /> <br />Reclamation (USBR) and operated by the Dolores Water Conservancy District under the <br /> <br />supervision ofUSBR. The dam was operated for flood control under the supervision ofthe U.S. <br /> <br />. Army Corps of Engineers from 1984 until 1994. The dam is now operated to provide water for <br /> <br />irrigation, municipal and industrial use, hydropower, recreation, and fish and wildlife. Its <br /> <br />capacity at gross pool is 381,200 acre-feet (Refenmce 4-g, Water Control Manual, and Pertinent <br /> <br />Datasheet, included here as Appendix B, Document 2). Of the major tributaries discharging into <br /> <br />McPhee Reservoir, among them Lost Canyon, Plateau, House, and Beaver Creek, the Dolores <br /> <br />River is its major contributor. <br /> <br />6 <br /> <br />el <br />e <br /> <br />-- <br />