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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION . prepare a plan of development that would be presented to Congress for possible authorization. Authority for the Study Investigations of projects that would develop power and other beneficial water uses along the Colorado River and its tributaries are authorized by the Reclamation Act of 1902, the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 (Public Law 70-642), and the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act of 1940 (Public Law 76-756). Specific authority for a feasibility study on the current Dominguez Reservoir Project was granted by Congress through the Water Resource Developments, Feasibility Studies Act of October 27, 1972 (Public Law 92-577). If authorized as a pumpback stor- age unit, the Dominguez Reservoir Project would seek non-Federal par- ticipation. . In addition, it may become necessary for the authorizing legislation to address a jurisdictional issue concerning an overlap of a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wilderness study area with land under Reclamation withdrawal and proposed for project purposes. At present, some 2,000 acres of this land on the Gunnison River Canyon's west side are included in the BLM Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Study Area, representing an unresolved issue in planning for the Dominguez Reservoir Project. Previous and Related Investigations Regulation and storage of Gunnison River flows in the canyon south of the city of Grand Junction have been considered for many years in conjunction with several proposed projects. The earliest study was presented in a report entitled The Colorado River (BR, 1946), and in- cluded the Whitewater Reservoir, part of the then-proposed Cisco-Thompson Project. The reservoir, to have been formed by a dam on the Gunnison River about 6 miles above its confluence with the Colorado River, would have supplied irrigation water to more than 90,000.acres and produced 18 MW of power. Among the project's drawbacks would have been its inun- dation of the small community of Whitewater, several miles of Federal and State highway, and most of the Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) Railroad right-of-way between Grand Junction and Delta. A later plan for development of Gunnison River flows was included in a report entitled The Colorado Riyer Storage Project (USBR, 1950), which recommended a Whitewater Unit..Y as one of the 10 major project units. The plan would have included an 880,000-acre-foot impoundment upstream from the site described in the preceding proposal to provide . 1/ In the final Commissioner's report entitled Colorado River Storage Project and Participating Projects, Upper Colorado River Basin, (December 1950), the name of the dam was changed from Bridgeport to Whitewater. 2