WSP06085

• File Number: 8141
• Description: Fryingpan-Arkansas Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 5/22/1984
• Author: National Wildlife Fe
• Title: Shortchanging the Treasury--The Failure of the Department of the Interior to Comply with the Inspector Generals Audit Recommendations to Recover the Costs of Federal Water Projects--select chapters pr
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Environmental Effects

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Fry-Ark reservoirs have inundated 10,901 acres of land.
Twin Lakes supports the only mysid shrimp population in
Colorado, and operation of the Mt. Elbert pumped-storage power
plant has had an unknown (or at least unreported) effect on the
shrimp population. Operation of the Fry-Ark project depletes
the Colorado River Basin of 70,000 acre-feet of water annually,
thus increasing the salinity of the Colorado River. Bureau of
Reclamation (BuRec) officials state that it is too early to
determine the effects of operating the Mt. Elbert
pumped-storage plant.

Project Status at the Time of the Audit

At the time of the Inspector General's review in 1980,
construction of the project was about 65 percent complete and
most of the revenue-producing features of the project were not
in operation. 'fhe power plant was not completed and
construction of the M&I delivery systems had not started. The
first sales of power were not expected until July 1981.
Although there had been sales of some irrigation and M&I water,
full-scale delivery was not anticipated until January 1982.

Current Project Status

The first commercial production of electric power from the
Mt. Elbert power plant occurred on October 1, 1981. First
delivery of water was from Pueblo Reservoir for irrigation and
municipal use in September 1975. Full-scale delivery began on
January 1, 1982.

As of January 1984, the project was 96% constructed with
completion anticipated in 1987. BuRec estimates that the
project will ultimately cost $530 million.

Project Beneficiaries

The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District is the
primary purchaser of irrigation and M&I water. Exxon Company
has the largest contract executed to date for water from Ruedi
Reservoir on the Western Slope. Additional contract requests
pending from Chevron, Mobil, Texaco, and Anaconda comprise more
than half of the available storage in Ruedi. Presently there
are fourteen purchasers of the project's power. (See Table 6-1
for a listing.)

AUDIT

Time Period of the Audit

The audit examined the Fiscal Year 1980 cost allocations
that were presented to Congress in January 1979.

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