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Show 3. Navajo Storage Unit Navajo Dam is located in northwestern New Mexico on the San Juan River, 34 miles east of Farmington and 3^ miles downstream from the confluence of the Los Pinos and San Juan Rivers. The dam is a rolled earth-fill embankment structure. The reservoir has 1,709,000 acre-feet total capacity and an active capacity of 1,036,000 acre-feet. The major purpose of this reservoir is to regulate the flows of the San Juan River for the authorized Navajo Indian Irrigation Project near Farmington, the San Juan-Chama participating project in the Rio Grande Basin, and the Hammond participating project. Part of the water to be made available will also be used for industrial and municipal purposes in northwestern New Mexico. Recreational facilities will be provided and are expected to contribute materially to the economy of the area. Construction Activities Navajo' Dam is now a completed structure in operational status. Completed on August 22, 1962, the dam was dedicated by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall on September 15, 1962. Storage of water was initiated on June 27, 1962, marking the first storage of water behind a major dam of the Colorado River Storage Project. Because of the subnormal runoff, Navajo Reservoir contained only 379,300 acre-feet of water on September 30, 1963. 4. Curecanti Storage Unit The Curecanti Unit involves construction of three major dams and powerplants along a 40-mile canyon cut by the Gunnison River below Gunnison, Colorado, and above the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument. The Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal Dams will capture and control the flows of the Gunnison River, which drains the western slopes of the high Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains into the Colorado River. They will provide storage capacity for controlling the Gunnison River and for the production of hydroelectric power, as well as irrigation, flood control, and extensive recreational benefits. Flows of the Gunnison River will be largely controlled by the 940,000-acre-foot Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest and uppermost of the reservoirs. Water released from the Blue Mesa Reservoir through a 60,000-kilowatt-capacity powerplant at the dam will receive short-term regulation at the Morrow Point Reservoir immediately downstream. The reservoir behind Morrow Point Dam 47 |
