WSP00620 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

28 COLORADO RIVER STORAGE PROJECT meeting on November 6, 1958, was held. The commission's engineer- ing committee subs~quent1y thereto and independently made a large number of operating studies, . The summary of its work, in report form, was transmitted to Assistant Secretary Aandahl by letter of September 22, 1959; signed bylval V, Goslin, chairman, Engineering Committee, Upper Colorado River Commission, In 'addition to th~ foregoing reports, the State of Colorado trans- mitted a report entitled "Future Operation of Glen Canyon Reser- voir, as Related tol the Colorado River Compact," which reported upon a study for the Colorado Water Conservation Board by the Colorado Water Investigation Commission. That report is dated July 1959, WORK OF THE ENGINEERING GR01.fPS The studies by bqth the upper and lower basin engineering groups were prepared on !' strictly objective basis) with the purpose of preparing reservoir pperationstudies in suffictent numbers to permit appraisal of the effept of a wide variety of possible' filling conditions, It was not anticipltted, at least by the Bureau engineers, that it would be possible to hit on a proposed' filling criteria which could be adopted "as is," : For the purposes of this memorandum, it is not believed necessary to brief the results 9f those many studies, The studies have, never- theless, been extremely helpful in arriving at the proposed filling criteria which are discussed hereafter, One general observation is that all of the studie~ show that even a slight change in fllling assump- tions can create 1ar!te differences in answers, This dictates that the studies can only be iindicative and no one set of detailed.regulations can be written in advance to covel' all conditions. There must be latitude, therefore, fbr the Secretary to operate to a great extent on a year-by-year .basis, I During the course of the studies and as a result of discussions within the Bureau group and with the upper and lower basin groups certain conclusions became apparent to the Bureau, Neither the upper nor lower basin groups c'an be expected to agree in all respects with these conclusions, State~ generally, these are as follows: (1) Nothing ~hould be done at Glen Canyon which would have an adverse effec.t on the users of water for consumptive purposes below Hoover Dam 01' use of water from the main stem between Lake Mead andlGlen Canyon, The magnitude of these uses will vary from year ito year and cannot be accurately forecast on an annual basis, : (2) Secondary energy should not be generated at Hoover Dam except in those times when all reservoirs are full and a spill would otherwise occur, (3) The obtairing of the minimum power head at Glen Canyon Reservoir, elevation 3,490 (approximately 6lj million acre-feet) at the earliest practicable time should be an objective of any filling criteria, . . , BUREAU PROPOSAL I Basic to a solution of the filling problem is an answer to what to do about any deficienc;}\ that might occur in the firm energy generation at Hoover powerplarit incident to filling the storage rroject reservoirs. The Bureau of Reclamation, after consideration 0 all aspects of the