OCR Text |
Show National Monument and downstream from the town of Gunnison. In order to prevent damage to property near the town, the authorizing legislation provides that Curecanti Dam shall be constructed to a height to store not less than 940,000 acre-feet of water, or to create a reservoir of such greater capacity as can be obtained by a high-water line located at 7,520 feet above sea level. Construction will not be commenced until further engineering and economic studies have been made and until the Secretary of the Interior has certified to the Congress and the President that the Curecanti Unit is economically justifiable. Studies show that a favorable plan would include a series of several dams, reservoirs, and power plants along the 35-mile river section. These power plants would have an installed generating capacity of about 152,000 kilowatts and would develop about 970 feet of static power head. The Curecanti Reservoir, the highest upstream of the series, would be formed by Blue Mesa Dam, located 30 miles downstream from Gunnison. This dam, about 350 feet high, would create a reservoir with a capacity of about 940,000 acre-feet at a high water elevation of 7,520 feet. This reservoir would provide seasonal regulation for a power plant at Blue Mesa Dam and for power plants at other dams in the 15-mile reach of river downstream. Detailed planning investigations of the Curecanti Unit should be completed in the near future. Construction Activities Investigations of the Curecanti Storage Unit are being conducted from the Upper Colorado River office in Salt Lake City, Utah. One immediate problem is to determine whether a single high dam at Morrow Point, or a lower dam there, in combination with another dam upstream at the Blue Mesa site, should be used to develop the power head above Morrow Point. Cost estimates for alternatives are now being prepared by the Bureau of Reclamation. Detailed topography of the Morrow Point and Crystal Dam sites is being obtained under photogrammetric contract. A special report to meet the requirements for Secretarial Certification under the authorizing Act is to be prepared by June, 1957. It will be followed by a definite plan report later in the same year. -40- |