4208

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 4208
• Author: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
• Title: Development in the Upper Colorado Basin, The Bureau of Reclamation Defends Itself.
• USFW Year: n.d.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

the Upper Basin states can be made,
Development of the long list of part-
icipating projects can proceed without
endangering the rights of the Lower
Basin to its share of water under the
Colorado River Compact of 1922.
Without the Storage Units and the
carryover or holdover storage they will
rapture in wet years, Upper Basin pros-
pects would riot be feasible. In dry
years they could not divert water to
deplete the Coloradc~ River to less than
the flows assured to the Lower Basin
ualder.-. t~ Compact.. In past years of
record, the Colorado flows which average
13 million acre-feet at Lees Ferry have
been as low as ~ million acre-feet.
Sowever, with the CRSP Storage Units,
adequate water for the Upper Basin
will ~ be available whether the
year is wet or dry.
The CRSP Storage Units have great
significance for another reason.
Irrigation farmers have long been short
of water=have long needed supplemental
water and storage dams on the tributaries
of the Colorado from which they irrigate
their farms.
Now, with the CRSP Storage Units,
Upper Basin farmers have a paying Partner
to assist them in meeting the require-
ments to repay reimbursable coast in
full. Powerplants at Glen Canyon Dam,
Flaming Gorge Dam, and Curecanti Unit
dams, along with some smaller plants
on participating projects, will produce
marketable power. Surplus revenues from
the sale of the power will go into-the
Upper Colorado River Basin Fund to
assist in the repayment of the partici-
pating project costs. The farmers will
repay to the mazimum of their ability
to do so, and the b~J.ance will be repaid
by power revenues accruing to the Basin
Fend. Colorado River System water,
which is regulated bo meet compact requi-
rements, also will be used to produce
hydro electric power a.s the water is
released through the CRSP powerplants.
GLEN CANYON DAM NEARS COMPLETION
Glen Canyon Dam, the largest and most
important of the Storage Unit dams, will
be topped out this month. Power from the
first of the eight 112,500-kilowatt gener-
ators is scheduled to go on the line is
June 1964. The remains-ng generators are
to go on the line at about foar-month
intervalswith the last generator scheduled
for July 1966.
Storage of water in Lake P®well began.
on March 13. By the end of the year,. one
of the driest on record, it is expected
that Lake Powell will be 120 miles long
and contain approzimately 3 mi]-lion acre-_. ~-
feet of water.
FLAMING GORGE POWER
Water storage began at Flaming Gorge
Reservoir on N vemberl, 1962, and the dam
was topped out~November 15. It is the
first dam to be built on the Green River.
The first of the three 36,000-kilowatt
generating units will be ready to go on
the line in October of this year with
the last generator to go into operation
in March 1964, as now scheduled.
NAVAJO DAM DIDICATED
ATavajo Dam was completed, essentially,
and dedicated in a ceremon3r held at the
damsite in September 1962. Although there
will. not..be a powerplant at the Navajo
Dam, it has very important functions in
addition to regulation of the flows of the
San Juan River. It will make possible the
gravity diversion of water directly from
the reservoir to the 110,000-acre Navajo
Indian Irrigation Project, and from an
upstream point to the San Juan-Chama Pro---
ject, which will take supplemental irri-
gation water and municipal and industrial
water from the San Juan River into the
Rio Grande drainage. Municipal and indus-
trial: water supplies ar urgently needed
i:n this vicinity which includes Albuquerque
New Mexico. Both of the latter projects
are authorized and preconstruction surveys
are in progress. ,
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