9584

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9584
• Author: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Title: Draft- Aspinall Unit Operations Study.
• USFW Year: 1988.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

reservoir storage. These demands were modeled using depletion
information from the Curicanti study and a distribution provided
the Conservancy. Tables used to model these three demands are
displayed in Table 3 below.
The station is also used to model two depletions which are
contained in the environmental baseline for the Gunnison River.
These two depletions are associated with snowmaking at Crested
Butte ski area and the enlargement of Overland Dam. The
depletions for these prefects are also include in Table 3.
A diversion demand such as the ones identified take water from the
river and, at least potentially, denies the water to downstream
users. This is where the priority scheme, based on water right
dates, comes in. A diversion may have a natural water right, or a
project water right, or a natural water right with a supplemental
project water right.
TABLE 3
Diversion Description AMOUNT
AF
Agriculture above Blue Mesa 24,732
Municipal and industrial above Blue Mesa 5,384
Reservoir storage 24,732
Crested Butte snowmakeing 139
Overland Dam enlargement 431
BLUE MESA RESERVOIR
The modeling effort got underway with a request to the Bureau's
Upper Colorado River office for information on the operation and
physical characteristics of Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal
Reservoirs, and power generation facilities. The tables, graphs,
and narrative information provided by the Bureau are attached as
Appendix A.
Basic information on the operation of Blue Mesa was obtained from
Randy Peterson (Bureau, SLC). Randy provided information on the
operating principles for Blue Mesa and contact was made with the
the Western Area Power Administration (Western) to obtain
information on power demands.
Western's office in Montrose, Colorado scheduled water deliveries
for hydropower generation out of all Colorado River Storage
Project (CRSP) reservoirs using a remote control to balance
electrical load. Western's Salt Lake City office markets power
generated from the CRSP to the Intermountain Power Pool and relays
demand to the control facilities at Montrose, Colorado. Ron
James, (Western, Montrose), provided information on past reservoir
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