9318

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9318
• Author: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Title: Procedures for Stocking Nonnative Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin.
• USFW Year: 1996.
• USFW - Doc Type: Denver.
• Copyright Material: NO

COLORADO RIVER STORAGE PROJECT
AND PARTICIPATING PROJECTS
A. AUTHORIZED STORAGE UNITS
(information relative to storage units and participating projects has been
provided by the United States Department of the interior, Bureau of Rec/amation.l
The Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) was authorized for construction
by the United States Congress in the CRSP Act of April 11, 1956 (70 Stat. 105).
Four storage units were authorized by this Act: Glen Canyon Dam and Reservoir
(Lake Powell) on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona; Navajo Dam and Reservoir
on the San Juan River in New Mexico and Colorado; Flaming Gorge Dam and
Reservoir on the Green River in Utah and Wyoming; and the Wayne N. Aspinall
Storage Unit (Aspinall Unit), formerly named the Curecanti Storage Unit and
rededicated in July 1981, on the Gunnison River in Colorado. The Aspinall Unit
consists of three dams and reservoirs: Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal.
Combined, the four storage units provide about 33,583,000 acre-feet of water
storage capacity. The Act also authorized the construction of 11 participating
projects. Ten additional participating projects have been authorized by subsequent
congressional legislation.
The storage units and participating projects are described in the 49th and
earlier annual reports of the Upper Colorado River Commission. Progress in
construction, planning, operation, and investigation of the storage units and
participating projects accomplished during the past water year is briefly outlined as
follows:
1. Glen Canyon Storage Unit
Glen Canyon Dam and Reservoir (Lake Powell) comprises the key storage
unit of the CRSP and is the largest of the initial four, providing about 80 percent of
the storage and generating capacity. Construction of the dam was completed in
1963. In addition to water storage for flood control and consumptive uses, Glen
Canyon Dam was built as a hydroelectric peaking power facility, permitting it to
move from low electrical output during low power demand to high electrical output
in peak demand periods. To that extent, flow releases from the dam were adjusted
daily, and at times hourly, to respond to variances in electrical demand.
At optimum operations, the generators at Glen Canyon Dam are capable of
producing 1,296 megawatts of power. Water releases from the dam occur at 200-
230 feet below the surface of Lake Powell, which results in clear, cold water with
year-round temperatures of 41 °F to 45°F. The recreation, irrigation, and
hydropower benefits introduced to the southwest by Glen Canyon Dam are
extensive and continue to expand.
Since the damming of the river in 1963, there has been only one flow
release which approached average pre-dam spring floods. In 1983, a combination
of unanticipated hydrologic events in the Upper Colorado River Basin, combined
with a lack of available storage space in Lake Powell, resulted in emergency spillway
releases from Glen Canyon Dam which reached 97,000 cubic feet per second (cfs).
Except for the 1983 event, historic releases over the last 34 years have generally
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