Laserfiche WebLink
<br />v <br />iY" 'It ,./ <br /> <br />V'l(J-l' <br /> <br />THE NEW CURECANTI UN IT <br />OF <br />THE UPPER COLORADO RIVER STORAGE PRQJECT <br /> <br />~.)>: , . <br />.,7 <br />J. <br />..,1'" ..:z -;1../- Sf, <br />'- <br /> <br />The Curecanti Dam and Reservoir on the Gunnison River <br /> <br />was originally planned to hold back 2* million acre feet of <br /> <br /> <br />water dnd to extend upstream to within a mile or so of the <br /> <br /> <br />City of Gunnison. The people of this neighborhood did not <br /> <br />care for this plan because at certain seasons of the year <br /> <br />that part of the reservoir near Gunnison would be drained <br /> <br />and leave only the uncovered bottom of the reservoir. <br /> <br />The reservoir dS planned would have had a power <br /> <br />plant capacity of 54,000 KW. <br /> <br />As a result of opposition to the large reservoir a <br /> <br /> <br />smaller one containing 9fO,000 acre feet was designed. The <br /> <br /> <br />power plant capacity for this installation would have been <br /> <br /> <br />40,000 kW. Unfortunately the second, the small reservoir, was <br /> <br /> <br />not economically feasible because of the high cost of the <br /> <br /> <br />power - something over 11 mills per kilowatt hour. <br /> <br />The benefits of this installation would have been <br /> <br />only .86 of the costs where a ratio of 1.00 is required. <br /> <br /> <br />The large reservoir was estimated to cost $85,865,000 and the <br /> <br /> <br />small one $49,302,000. <br /> <br />For the past two years the Bureau of Reclamation has <br /> <br /> <br />been engaged in a preliminary re-study of the project. <br />