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Maintaining The Colorado ~River & Controlling Flows As the custodian of the Colorado River waters in the United States, the Bureau of Reclamation is responsible for the control and maintenance of the riyer's chult- nds. hank lines, and levees. For the Colorado River's elaborate system of dams and reservoirs to \\-'ork as designed, the ri\'er channel mLlst be properly controlled and maintained. The Colorado River carries a tremendous amount 01 sediment along its bottom. Like many mature rivers, it tends to meander from one bank 10 the other, cutting into the banklines and increasing its sediment load. The river moves the sediment do.....nslream until it reaches an area .....here water slows dO\"n, causing some of the sediment to drop by gravity 10 the river bottom. Large amounts of sediment that deposit in various spots in the ri\'er C.l0 build up from the river bottom to form SilllcJhars that can reach the surface of the river. Riprap One \~'ay to atlack the sediment problem is to simply stabilize banks by nnnoring them With riprap, Riprap consists of large rocks and boulders and is placed on the side of earthen len:es or banklines to armor and protect them Irom riverfloh's that \~.ould cut into the soil "nd erode it if not i'lfmored with riprap ~lany miles of the banks along the lah.er Colorado River have been armored with riprap, Riprap is mined Irom v,uious rock quarries and placed in over a hundred stockpiks stratesically located along the river between Davis Dam "nd the Southerly International Boundary, When maintenance work is needed or quickly de\"eloping problems occur along the river, the rock m.1terial is readily available in nearby stockpiles. It takes a considerable amotln! of time to mlllt' rock hy blasting and processing. ar.d more time to haul rock from a Fl1crSht!t!l :::..; quarry to the arca needing protection. 50, without stock- piles rock h.ould not be a\'ail- able for emergency conditions. river. They can also be used to control the width of Ihe chan- nel. DesiIting basins Jetties It is easier and less expensive to intercept and remove sedi- ment bdorl? it sets mo\.ed into hundreds of miles of irrigation canals, since they can be quite e:o;pensive to clean out. Sediment is removed in strategic locations, usually at desilting basins located at the Another \~."y of reducing erosion to rh.erbanks is to con- struct jetties, or training stnlc- lUTes, usually at 3 slight downstream angle to alter the torce of the river OOh'. These structures usually deflect the current a\~.ay from the banklin~ and to\~.ard the center of the H i.1tt'r5 of (hi! Colorado Series