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. PART 11 DESCRIPTION Or BASIN .... Ul o I\,) Hoover Dam, fOr meeting treaty requirements with Mexico, and for develop- ing power h~ad for the product ion of electrical energy at Davis Power- plant. The river flows through a natural channel for about to miles below Davis Dam at which point the river enters the broad ~ohave Valley 33 miles above the upper end of Lake Havasu. Lake Havasu backs up behind Parker Dam for about 45 miles and covers about 25,000 acres, serVIng as a forebay from which the ~etropotitan Water District of Southern California pumps water into the Colorado River Aqueduct. lake Havasu will also serve as forebay for the Central Arizona Project pumping plants and aqueducts, Lake Havasu and Alamo Dam and Reservoir, on the Bill Williams River, are used to control floods originating below Davis Dam and above Parker Dam. Headgate Rock Dam, Palo Verde Diversion Dam, and Imperial Dam all serve as diversion structures with practically no storage. Imperial Dam, located some ISO miles downstream from Parker Dam, is the major diversion structure to irrigation projects in the Imperial Valley and Yuma areas. It diverts water on the right bank to the All American Canal which dt:'l ivers water to the Yuma Pr..,ject in Ar izona and Cal i fornia and Imperial and Coachella Valleys in California. It diverts on the left bank to the Gila Gravity Main Canal. . The Senator Wash Dam, an affstream reserVOIr, also affords regula- tion in the vicinity of Imperial Dam and assists in the delivery of water to Mexico. This dam and reservoir is used for pump back storage, power generation, and recreation. The !-forelos Dam is the last dam on the Colorado River. This smal ( diversion dam diverts water for the Alamo Canal which delivers water to northern Mexico, located just below the Northern International Boundary. C. Hydrology The Colorado River Basin, technically divided into an Upper and Lower Basin, has a total area of approximately 244,000 square mill'S, carrYIng an average annual virgIn flow of 13 to IS MAF at Lee Ferry. Of this flow, more than S MAF per year is exported to the Arkansas, Missouri, the Great Basins, to Southern California, and to the Rio Grande. Wet and dry cycles have played a signific.1nt role in bringing about the development of the Colorado River/Reservoir complex. In the past, the annual flow of the river has varied frorn less than 6 ~AF to over 20 MAF per year. The reservoir system allows storage of sufficient water to maintain the flows of the river to meet dO\ofTlstream needs during dry periods. . The Colorado construction and filling of River Bas in have brought about the mainstem reservoirs of significant changes in the the flow 7