WSP04126

• File Number: 8220.100.50
• Description: CRSP - Power Marketing
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 6/1/1958
• Author: Fed. Power Comm.
• Title: Power Market Survey -Colorado River Storage Project
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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Power Market Survey - Colorado River Storage Project

B - Physical Characteristics of Region

Topography and Clilnate
The Colorado River from its source in the mountairls of Colorado to
its mouth in the Gulf' of California, 1,350 river miles, flows through
deep and spectacular canyons. In its course to the sea it traverses the
states of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, and a part of Mexico. In addition
its drainage area includes parts of Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, and
California.

The region is noted for its spectacular canyons and its towering
mountains. The awe-inspiring Grand Canyon of the Colorado, over 200 miles
in length and as much as a mile deep, attracts visitors from throughout
the world. The snow-capped Rocky Mountains, which fom the Continental
Divide, and which oontain peaks in excess of 14,000 feet above sea level,
intersects the market area. In general the region is made up of plateaus
which range in altitude from less than 1,000 feet in southwest Arizona to
over 8,000 feet in Colorado. Temperatures in the region vary from 50
degrees below zero in the winter to over 100 degrees above zero ill the
summer.

The entire basin is arid, and in general rainfall is insufficient
for the profitable growing of crops without irrigation. Precipitation
varies from 2-i inches along the Mexican border to 50 inches in the
mountains of Colorado. Many of the summer rains are local in character
and of cloudburst proportions. Most of the winter and spring precipita-
tion OCCHrS in the mountains in the fonn of snow.

C - Natural Resources

Land
The land area of the region is over 326 million acres, of which
some 160 million acres, 49 percent, are classified as farm land. Less
than 9.6 million acres are used for crops and nearly 6.3 million acres
of this are irrigated. Approximately 150 million acres of the "fam
lands" are used principally for grazing pUIposes. The land ownership
and the various classifications of farm land are shown, for those portions
of each state in the region, on Table 1.

Much of the region's land area. not in farms contains public grazing
land and publicly owned forest range. Large areas of the nonfann land
are used for military installations, cities, parks, public roads, and
railroad lands. The nonfarm lands also include privately owned forests,
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