FLOOD01339

• County: Larimer
• Community: Loveland
• Stream Name: Big Thompson River
• Title: Application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a License to Re-construct, Operate, and Maintain the Loveland Project
• Date: 11/1/1977
• Prepared For: FERC
• Prepared By: Loveland
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Miscellaneous

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Special Environmental Clearance Worksheet
City of Loveland, Colorado
. Page 4

H. 1, Impact of Environment on Project (continued)

- Destruction of the roadway and left abutment
- Minor erosion damage to the diversion dam.
- Major erosion damage along the pipeline,
- Major erosion of the landscape at the power plant.
- No structural damage to the power plant building.
- Minor silt and water damage to the turbine/generator
units and related equipment.

Design to further protect the project against floods having
a less than 1% chance of occurrence would not be economically
justified due to the low probability of occurrence.

(b) Earthquakes and Debris Slides

These are the principal geology related hazards, A major fault,
the Big Thompson, trends beneath the generating station site and
neighbors the dam and reservoir site. However, earthquake risk
is judged to be low since the fault is a geologically ancient
structure for which no evidence of recent movement has been
documented. During the design of the facilities, current
criteria will be used to provide adequate earthquake protection
based on the anticipated frequency for this area. If a large
earthquake were to occur and destroy the dam, the release of
45 acre feet of water would not cause damage or endanger
lives downstream. Minor damage due to debris slides may occur
from time to time, however, due to the terrain, preventative
measures are not practical.

b. Social Environment

(1) Benefi ci a 1 Impacts

(a) Reconstruction will provide clean, low cost power to residents
of the canyon and the City of Loveland.--rn an age of rising
costs of living and environmental degradation, clean, low cost
power is in demand. The City is presently purchasing power at
a rate 4 times that of hydroelectricity,

(b) The project will enhance fish life in the Big Thompson canyon
by creating an 45 acre feet reservoir which can be stocked as
prior to the disaster. Residents of the canyon say that the
Loveland Dam reservoir was "The best fishing in the Big
Thompson" .

(2) Adverse Impacts

There is no apparent public dissatisfaction with the project,