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1- ~b.-,-,rs J \.1 I'; '6 2-. ~ C 00 - -'qe 10 - Rocky Mountain News, Denv- '":010. C' Red tape, cost of loans mire . water prolects By DEBORAH FRAZIER News Stalf The Colorado-Ute Electric Association Tuesday indefinitely postponed two massive hydroelectric water storage projects in western ColoradQ, citing high interesJ rates and unanticipated government requirements. "Colorado-Ute cannot justify these projects solely for hydro- electric purposes at this time because of present high interest rates," said Girts Krumins, president of the Montrose-based utility, in announcing the decision in Craig. "While we will need additional generating capacity in the future, development of hydroelectric facilities is not competitive with equivalent coal-fired generation under existing conditions," Krumins said. - The Tri-County Water Reservoir, planned for the Gunnison River east of Delta, would have. stored 55,000 acre feet of water and was expected to generate 20 megawatts of power annually. An acre foot of water is the amount it would take to cover an acre of ground with a foot of water, about 325,851 gallons. The Juniper-Cross Mountain Project, a two-dam, two-reser- voir system proposed for the Vampa River southwest of Craig, would have stored 1.3 million acre feet and was expected to produce up to 350,000 megawatts each year. The Colorado-Ute board voted Friday to postpone indefinite- ly the two projects and made the announcement Tuesday. Colora- do-Ute is the state's second largest electric utility and provides wholesale power to 14 member cooperatives. - Larry Ashland, Colorado-Ute public information coordinator, said the company spent $1 million on the Tri-County project, primarily for acquiring land, and spent $1.2 million on the Junip.er-Cross Moantain Project to obtain federal permits. Krumins said interest rates were 7.5 percent when Colorado- Ute started planning the Juniper-Cross Mountain Project, and the anticipated return on the investment was about five years. Krumins said current interest rates in excess of 14 percent mean the return would require 15 years. And he said further unanticipated requests from federal and state agencies could further increase the cost of the project. As an example of "unanticipated requests," Ashland cited the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's request tMt 60 square miles of Mollat County land be purchased to mitigate wildlife impacts from the ,juniper-Cross Mountain Project. The project originally was expected to cost $146 million, but the cost has climbed to $230 million, Ashland said. The project called for Colorado-Ute to pay construction costs and the Colora- do River Water Conservation District to handle storage. I "t ~ 1,. - _~_ ""' ~ ,,' ~ I <;- "