WSP01187

• File Number: 8027
• Description: Section D General Correspondence-Federal Agencies
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 7/1/1952
• Author: Unknown
• Title: The Golden Jubilee of Reclamation
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Boulder Canyon Project was made possible by
the use 01 power as an instrument for repayment. It
not only made possible the irrigation of the rich and
productive lands of the Imperial Valley of California.
it reduced the danger of lI00ds in the Colorado River,
and supplied a billion gallons a day 01 domestic
waler to Los Angeles and olher coostal cities. The
power generated will repay 90 per cent of the cost
of the project WIth bteresl.

Other multiple-purpose projects where power will
pay more than 50 per cent of the load are Columbia
Basin project in Washington, watering 1.2fXl,OOO
acres of land. lorgely deserl; the Central Valley
Project in Ccrlilorma, where 2,000,000 acres of land
will be benefited; and the Coloradc>Biq Thompson
Project in Colorado, which will provide a supple--
mentary supply of waler lOT more than 600,000 d:ctes
of intensively cultivated farms in the northern part
01 the state.

The next phase of the multiple-purpose project
was to build transmission lines to Insure delivery of
10\ll<ost power 10 ultimate users. And the next no.
tural development was a few steamplants to firm
the power delivered from erratic stream flows.
Step by step we have tinaIly come to the grea1
Missouri River Basin Project where the problems are
considered in lhe Basin as a whole, where storage
is made at one reservoir for irrigalion and flood con-
trol. and at some other reservoir for another combina.
tion of benehts. The whole project Is then computed
for cost justification.
Preservation of sanitation, domestic water supply,
preservation of fish and wildlife are some of the
other benefits that have been added to the multiple-

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purpose project. There will be more as the need
Q:--ises and time goes on. The ultimate object is 10
squeeze the most possible beneW out of every drop
01 water in the West. Whatever it takes to accom.
plish this purpose, that Is what the American people
will demand: and the engineers will hnd a way to
do it.
The Intricate project planning, as we know it
today, is another phase cf development that has
grown up through necessity and experience. It is a
far cry from the small. simple on-river diversion,
serving a handful of irrigators, to the mammoth
super-structures of today, built to satisfy the complex
needs of town and country.
From a beginning of building reservoirs of smaiL
peaceful. stock.pond size, we have come \0 store
"Nater in reservoirs 100 miles long. They stretch out
like young oceans. and the pressure against their
dams is terrific. Just to build a dam that will hold
oock that much water is a great engineering feat in
itself. The problem 01 finding a reservoir site. where
the least good land will be inundaled. and where the
most water can be stored the farthest upstream,
constitutes the first of many problems.
Underground structures must be determined to
see if there is sufficient stability to hold a dam. Soil
conlent musl be tested in the plains CDuntry to ascer-
tain if it can be used successfully to build an earth-
filled dam. few rocky canyon sites, where concrele
can be used exclusively, remain 10 be developed.
The height of the dam nlkessary to hold back a
given amount of water under all circumstances must
be pre-delermlned. Remember, when the wind gets
behind some of those waves. there Is a splash 40 to
60 feet high at times. Consider the bealing the rip.
rap takes under pressure like that. The engineers
have to do so. ESTES POWEll: PLANT (Color.do)

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