Laserfiche WebLink
<br />G l) 1'.' \)1 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />reservoir, now at elevation 5,966 feet, will remain practically constant <br /> <br />until about October 1 when we will again withdraw some water as a safety <br /> <br />precaution while we repair the outlet works stilling basin, We plan to <br /> <br />refill to adequate recreational levels next spring. <br /> <br />Blue Mesa Reservoir, nOW in its first year of operation, began to <br /> <br />fill in October 1965 and now contains about 330,000 acre-feet of water, <br /> <br />with a lake elevation of 7,432 feet. The reservoir level will gradually <br /> <br />decline to about 329,000-acre-foot volume at elevation 7,431 feet by <br /> <br />March 1967. Some <br /> <br />under an exchange <br /> <br />water is now being released to the Uncompahgre Project <br /> <br />arrangement with Taylor park~Reservoir which assisted <br /> <br />in the initial filling of Blue Mesa last fall. Operation of Blue Mesa <br /> <br />Reservoir for the production of hydropower will begin when the first <br /> <br />30,000-kw generating unit now being installed is tested next spring. <br /> <br />Fontenelle Reservoir storage has been reduced to about 26,000 acre- <br /> <br />feet of water or about 7% of its 345,000-acre-foot total capacity to <br /> <br />facilitate repairs to the embankment damaged by last year's leak. Re- <br /> <br />filling cannot be scheduled until we can assure complete control of the <br /> <br />river and avoid any risk of a rapid and uncontrolled rise in water level <br /> <br />on this new embankment. It now appears that filling will be delayed <br /> <br />until at least a year from now, or possibly longer, depending on the <br /> <br />progress we achieve in our embankment and stilling basin repairs. <br /> <br />Total available storage in the combined Upper Basin reservoirs and <br /> <br />Lake Mead is now about 24.9 million acre-feet, which is about 3/4 million <br /> <br />acre-feet more than at this time last year and about 9.6 million acre- <br /> <br />feet above minimum power operating levels. With this cushion we see no <br /> <br />major operating problems through March 1967. Snowmelt runoff in the <br /> <br />5 <br />