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Show CHAPTER VI 103 Until elevation 3490 is reached, any water stored in Lake Powell can be released to maintain rated head (14.5 maf at elevation 1123) on the Hoover Powerplant; when Lake Powell reaches elevation 3490, the stored water cannot be released below that point; and in the process of reaching 3490, the release of water at Glen Canyon Dam will not be less than 1.0 maf/yr and 1,000 cubic feet per second (ftVs). Paragraph 8. This provides the principle that the powerplants will be coordinated and integrated without being tied to a specific plan so as to produce the greatest practical amount of power and energy. Paragraph 9. The decision to coordinate and integrate eliminates secondary energy generation at Hoover, unless a spill is imminent. Paragraph 10. This permits an earlier cutoff date than the date when Glen Canyon storage has reached elevation 3700 or May 31, 1987, if the conditions warrant such action. Paragraph 11. This provides that in the annual application of the flood control regulations to the operations at Lake Mead, available capacity in upstream reservoirs shall be recognized. On February 9, 1960, Secretary of the Interior Seaton approved Reclamation's recommendation that the above proposal be submitted to the engineering committee and then to the States of the two Basins for comment. On February 12, 1960, the Department of the Interior issued the proposed general principles and criteria with a memorandum of explanation dated January 18, 1960. D. Revised Principles Comments and suggested modifications of the proposed principles were received from Congressional members and from Basin representatives at a series of meetings held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in March 1960; Los Angeles, California, in May 1960 and April 1961; Salt Lake City, Utah, in January 1961; and in Denver, Colorado, in May 1961. In a memorandum dated June 13, 1961, from the Commissioner of Reclamation to the Secretary of the Interior, the following review was made. After evaluation of the comments it received, the Bureau of Reclamation revised its previously recommended principles.The most substantive revisions related to Principle 5, dealing with the allowance for a portion of the diminution in power generation at Hoover Dam. Principle 5 was revised so as to take into account the effect on the stream by impoundment of water in all the storage units in the Upper Basin; i.e., Glen Canyon, Flaming Gorge, Navajo, and Curecanti (see letter of January 3, 1962, from Colorado River Commission of Nevada to Secretary of the Interior Udall which advocated that change), but excluding the effects of evaporation from the surface of such reservoirs as part of the theoretical streamflow used in the formula for computing allowance. The Upper Basin Compact treats reservoir evaporation losses as a "consumptive use" and the Upper Basin believed such losses should not be accounted for in computing the amount of "adjustment" in Hoover firm energy generation. The computation of and provision for allowance would not apply to Navajo and Flaming Gorge until the filling operation starts at Glen Canyon. Reclamation rejected a suggestion that an efficiency factor of 78 percent be used in computing Hoover basic firm energy, from which would be subtracted the energy actually generated at Hoover, adjusted to an efficiency factor of 83 percent, which would tend to minimize the deficiency. Also rejected was the use of the difference between actual generation and contract firm, which would tend to maximize the deficiency. The Upper Basin States critized the use of the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund, established by the Act of April 11, 1956, in making the payments to meet the deficiency. The Upper Basin was opposed to the use of storage project energy or storage project revenues to compensate the Hoover power contractors for energy deficiency during the filling period. They questioned the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to use such power output or revenues for that purpose and believed that the existence of the power contracts should not influence the Secretary in developing the operating criteria. Senator Bennett of Utah criticized Principle 5 for the reasons that consumptive use of water is paramount and power is secondary; that there is no legal requirement in the Compact or Storage Project Act that the Upper Basin States make up Hoover power deficiencies; that the Hoover power contracts anticipated upstream development and a diminution in firm power production during the filling period; that the Lower Basin water and power users benefited by the 30-year delay in building dams in the Upper Basin; and that the Hoover power deficiency did not arise because of the filling of Glen Canyon but was partly due to decreased |
