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Show 4 DIXIE PROJECT, UTAH The development of the recreational potential of the project would provide additional recreation and fish and wildlife opportunities which are needed in the project area. The recreational potential of the Dixie project is planned for development by the National Park Service to supplement the recreational facilities available in Zion National Park. The Virgin River is an erratic and flooding stream. Much of the annual flow comes heavily laden with silt, particularly that resulting from heavy summer storms. The Dixie project will provide for control of destructive and wasteful floods and for silt storage. The Virgin City reservoir has a capacity of 246,000 acre-feet. Seventy-three percent of this capacity will be dedicated to silt storage and flood control. Of the 24,000 acre-feet of storage capacity proposed for the lower Gunlock Dam on the Santa Clara River, 42 percent is to be reserved for silt storage and flood control. Combined, the two project reservoirs will stop a large part of the silt from the Virgin River now going into Lake Mead. They will also stop much of the flooding along the entire lower reaches of the Virgin River in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada; PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATION The Dixie project would be constructed as two divisions-the Hurricane division and the Santa Clara division. The two divisions are contiguous and closely related through the economic needs of the area, although each has its own water supply and their project works would not be physically connected. The principal project facilities of the Hurricane division would be the Virgin City Dam, reservoir, and powerplant, the Bench Lake and Warner powerplants, and the Hurricane division main canal. The reservoir would have a capacity of 246,000 acre-feet. The three powerplants would have a combined installed capacity of 13,200 kilowatts and would make available an average of about 44.5 million kilowatt- hours of firm energy and 1.9 million kilowatt-hours of secondary energy for sale annually. The principal project facilities of the Santa Clara division would be the lower Gunlock Dam and Reservoir with a capacity of about 24,000 acre-feet and an existing canal which would be rehabilitated and extended. Distribution and drainage systems would be constructed on both divisions. Of the 21,060 acres of land which would be served by both divisions, 9,445 acres would receive supplemental water and 11,615 acres would receive a new irrigation water supply; 17,135 acres are in the Hurricane division and 3,925 acres are in the Santa Clara division. None of the crops grown in any of the areas to be irrigated with these supplemental waters fall under the Government's agricultural subsidy program. The principal recreation facilities would be constructed at the Virgin City Reservoir which is located immediately downstream from the Zion National Park in an area where extensive recreation use is expected. The operation of the Dixie project is expected to impair somewhat the quality of the water for downstream use. For this reason, the project cost includes $2 million to cover the solution to this water quality problem. Possible solutions would include evaporation of all or part of the flows of the highly mineralized La Verkin Springs or |
