BOARD02111 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

and preliminary injunction enjoining respondent and real parties of interest from engaging in any physical activity connected with the approvals or lining project. BOR Commissioner John Keys Announces Expansion of Tour, Opening of New Exhibits at Hoover Dam: On April 4, Then-Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys ill announced the tour route at Hoover Darn wiIl be expanded to include the Nevada penstock viewing platform, enabling visitors to view a portion of the dam that has been closed for nearly five years. He also announced that Reclamation wiIl re-open the exhibit gaIlery in the dam's visitor center on April 7. The exhibit gallery has been closed since September 2005 while new exhibits were being installed. Following the September 11,2001, attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the historic tour of Hoover Darn and the popular "hard hat" tour were discontinued. The dam's visitor center was re-opened within weeks, but it wasn't until December 200 I that tours into the dam were re-initiated. For security purposes, however, the tour was restricted to the balcony overlooking the generators in the power plant's Nevada wing. Keys noted that the tour expansion did require the installation of some physical barriers along the expanded route, but did not require any changes in security procedures. m 2002, Reclamation conducted an analysis of the exhibits installed in 1995 and surveyed Hoover Dam visitors to determine if those exhibits were meeting people's infonnation needs. The study led to a decision to replace the original exhibits to focus more specifically on the dam's historic and the technical aspects of its construction, operation and maintenance. The new exhibits, which opened to the public on April 7. include interactive and static science displays, detailed dioramas, and an almost full-size cutaway display of a hydroelectric turbine generator that visitors can walk through to learn about the internal components and workings of these units. The lobby of the dam's original exhibit building, located across the street from the visitor center, has also been renovated. It features infonnation about the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that built, operates and maintains Hoover Dam. It also includes a replica of the bas relief sculpture found on the Nevada elevator tower on top of the dam, and other infonnational materials. Ree1amation Contract for Study of Hoover Dam Turbines Focuses on Modifications to Iucrease Power Capacity at Low Lake Levels: As a result of the decline in Lake Mead's elevation since 1999, in March 2006 the Bureau of Reclamation, in consultation with power customers, initiated a program to modify the turbines at Hoover Dam to increase their electrical generating capacity at lower lake levels. m 2005, Reclamation installed new stainless steel wicket gates in Unit A-I, one of17 commercial hydroelectric turbine generators at the dam. Changing the wicket gates, which control the amount of water flowing past the turbine, enabled the unit to be operated with an additional 8 megawatts of available capacity when Lake Mead's elevation is at 1,145 feet above sea level or lower. Similar results are expected for two other units. one of which received new stainless steel gates this year. and another that will receive new wicket gates in 2007. On March 3, 2006, Reclamation awarded a $195,648 contract to Precision Machine & Supply, mc., located in Lewiston, ill. The company will conduct an analytical study to maximize the turbine systern electrical generating capacity and performance of seven additional generating units at the dam, three on the Arizona side and four on the Nevada side. After an evaluation of the analytical design study, Reclamation may opt to purchase additional wicket gates for one or more of the seven units. If all the contract options are exercised, the contract value will be more than $5 million over 3 years. 18 " . . .