OCR Text |
Show of power will be used to help pay construction costs of the dam and reservoir and assist in repayment of irrigation costs of participating projects. Recreation Activities During the past year recreation facilities on Flaming Gorge Lake were unable to accommodate the influx of visitors to that area on the major holidays. The actual number of visitors to September of 1965 was 2y2 times the number forecast when planning for the area was started in 1957. Visitors to the Flaming Gorge area for the calendar year 1965 through September totaled 691,000. This included 105,000 over the Memorial Day, July 4, and July 24 weekends. Development of recreation facilities has been mainly at the four major recreation areas - Lucerne Valley, Antelope Flats, Dutch John Draw, and Cedar Springs - where boat ramps, picnic and campground areas, concession facilities, etc., are available for public use. Boat ramps have been constructed at four other sites at convenient intervals on the central and upper portions of the lake. Basic facilities will be established in these areas as the need arises and funds are made available. 3. Navajo Storage Unit 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 in a storage unit of the Colorado River Storage Project. 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 Los Pinos and San Juan Rivers. The dam is a zoned 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. 75 |