4100

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 4100
• Author: Gibert, S.
• Title: Water Policy and Development of the Colorado River.
• USFW Year: 1973.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

waters of the Colora.do and a.lso to figure out a 'day to get
them across the three-mils-high Divide.

After two years, the engineers came up nith a scheme to

pump or siphon some 300,000 acre-feet of water over tne Divide
and into the Big Thompson River, (the head waters of the Platte).

It waS a huge undertaking, but Congress bought it a2d construc-

tion of the Big Thompson project began in 1938.

A.gain funding of the project fell short, and Congress had
to appropriate additional dollars so that, at its completion
in 1955, the project cost more tha~ 160 million dollars -- 20

million more than the Hoover Dam projectl The Big Thompson ?ro-

ject was a network of 16 dams, 8 storage lakes, 11 pumping and

8 hydorelectric plants, tr'9.usmission lilies, canals, and tunnels.

The pro j ect ~{as a big .plus for the progress of the Bureau, for

its waters are more heavily employed ~ad efficiently channeled

than those serving the I~peri~l Valley or Los Angeles. With

one fiftieth of the amount of water which o?erates the Hoover

Dam installations, the Big-T generates Olie sixth the hydroelec-
tric power. (1 ,4)

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