WSP01441

• File Number: 8407.500
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications - Missouri River
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 12/1/1971
• Author: Missouri Basin Inter
• Title: Missouri River Basin Comprehensive Framework Study-Volume VII-Plan of Development and Management-Appendix
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

publicly owned systems. However, the Federal system
generates about 70 percent more energy than the other
publicly owned systems and supplies most of the energy
requirements of the electric cooperatives in the basin.

Thennal-Electric Power Plant Using Lignite Coal

The estimated energy requirement of the basin in
1965 was 37 billion kilowatt-hours. The available supply
in 1965 permitted export of 2 billion kilowatt-hours
from the basin. However, over relatively short time
periods the export-import balances are expected to
equalize.
Electric generation by steam plants using coal and
natural gas provides the majority of the electric energy
in the basin. In 1965, though some plants were then
planned and now are under construction, there were no
nuclear plants producing energy in the basin. After
agriculture, the electric generating industry is the largest
single water user in the basin. In 1965, the aggregate
requirement for condenser cooling water was over 3.3
million acre-feet annually, requiring streamflow diver-
sions of over 1.7 million acre-feet annually but only a
consumptive use of 36,800 acre-feet annually. Table 15
summarizes the type of ownership and installed capacity
of the existing power systems in the basin, excluding
industrial generation.

Table 15 - COMPOSITION OF POWER SUPPLY MISSOURI BASIN, 1965

Ownershio
Item Investor Cooperative Public Federal Total
Type of System
Generating (No.) 27 13 175 1 216
Distribution Only (No.) ~ ill 184 ~ 341
Total 33 164 359 I 557
lnstalIed Capacity
Thermal (Mw) 4,695 154 2,398 0 7,247
Hydro (Mw) 474 0 140 2,294 2,908
Total 5,169 I 154 2,538 I 2,2941 10,155
,

Iln 1966, an additional 426 MW of hydro capacity was installed. Thus, in 1966, the Federai capacity waS 2,720 MW, the tot::!
hydro capacity was 3,334 MW, and the total basin capacity'was 10,581 MW. -

Recreation and Fish Wildlife

Some of the best known outdoor recreation areas of
the United States within the basin are Yellowstone,
Glacier, and Rocky Mountain National Parks, the Black
Hills Region, and the Lake of the Ozarks area. Moreover,
the six major reservoirs on the main stem of the Missouri
River provide more than one million surface acres of
water which is attracting increasing recreation use.
Almost 19 million acres of national forests and grass-
lands provide land-oriented recreation opportunities in
the western portions of the basin. In the more populous
eastern portions of the basin, the opportunities for
outdoor recreation are more limited in scope and variety
and consist largely of State and local parks and privately
owned facilities. These areas provide slightly more than
three-fourths of the developed recreation acreage of the
basin.

48

The inventory of recreation resources in the Missouri
River Basin was divided into three classifications, con-
sisting of scenic, historic, and natural environment areas
(Type I); land-oriented recreation resources (Type II);
and water-oriented recreation resources (Type Ill).
Excluding the privately owned recreation areas, which
are estimated to aggregate well over 800,000 acres of
land and water, there are over 50 million acres of public
lands and water areas in the basin with varying degrees
of recreation potential and use. About 5 percent of this
total area is water surface and slightly over one-tenth of
one percent is marsh land. Slightly more than 174,000
acres, or about three-tenths of one percent of the total
recreation resource area, have been developed for recrea-
tion in the sense that recreation facilities are available.
The number of visitors to these facilities in 1965 was
over 110 million.