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Show UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF RECLAMATION Regional Office, Region 4 P. O. Box 360 Salt Lake City 10, Utah May 15, 1961 In reply refer to: 4-900 Mr. Ival Goslin, Chairman Engineering Committee Upper Colorado River Commission 366 South Fifth East Street Salt Lake City 2, Utah Dear Ival: We appreciate your March 9, 1961, letter expressing the concurrence of the Engineering Committee for the Upper Colorado River Basin Commission on the Bureau's proposed filling and initial operation of Navajo Reservoir. With this assurance we presented this plan at a general meeting on April 13 at Santa Fe, New Mexico, of federal and state agencies interested particularly in the recreational phases of the Navajo Reservoir development and found them all very receptive to the proposal. Preparations are under way by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Sports Fisheries, and their respective state groups in order to be ready with facilities and action programs geared to a closure date of December 1961 at Navajo Dam. Of particular significance are early designs and construction of boat ramps by the National Park Service, trash fish eradication, and stocking of game fish programs by the state and federal fish and game agencies. The problem of initial operation of Navajo Reservoir to provide early recreation and yet assist with the initial filling of the Glen Canyon Reservoir was discussed in detail. With a reasonable assurance of water levels at Navajo Reservoir in the zone above 5,970 (an 85 percent chance even in the first year of closure) there appeared to be no problem in the release of storage to elevation 5,945 during nonrecreation seasons identified as Labor Day to May 1, thereby supplementing the initial storage at Glen Canyon Dam with at least one advance season of stored water from Navajo Reservoir. Concurrent annual drafts on the Upper Colorado River System there- 22 |