Show restless colorado river capable of power for all area the murky red restless waters ot of the colorado river and its tri td but aries arles someday may be harnessed to generate erate kilowatt venerate ho hours u rs jen of electrical energy annually in the upper colorado river basin 8 dams strategically placed in multicolored multi colored canons cut through the horizontal strata of the colorado plateau by the grinding action of silt and sand suspended in the river water would tame the river water released from those dams would turn dynamos sending energy through g h a power grid to motors ad tazu and appliances p 1 lances throughout through out cut the southwest the upper basin states colora do wyoming new mexico and utah and and the bureau of reclamation of the federal government 0 vern ment devised a long range pla plan n to harness barness part of the hydroelectric hydro electric potential lal or of the colorado river known as the colorado river storage project and participating irrigation projects twenty five years of study planning and negotiations have gone into the project planning report issued by the bureau in 1950 more than that may elapse before all the me dams and power plants are built and functioning ten holdover storage reservoirs with so power plants are planned by the bureau u au and the four states they are glen canon just above lees lee 3 ferry in northern arizona the reservoir extending northward on the san juan and colorado rivers into utah echo park yampa ladore on the green and yampa rivers in northwestern colorado flaming gorge on the green river in utah and wyoming split mountain on the green river below echo park in utah whitewater on the gunnison river a short distance above grand junction Cure cand on the gunnison river at Sa salinero pinero crystal on the gunnison below Cure canti cross mountain on the yampa above echo park gray canon on the green river above Green river utah and navaho on the san juan in new mexico installed capacities of the power plants would be unit capacity cross mountain crystal Cure canti echo park flaming gorge glen canon gray canon navajo 30 ow split mountain whitewater total other units such as de beque on the colorado river above palisade or dewey on the colorado river in utah might be added or might substitute for 0 some of the original plan the bureau Is now studying a revision of Cure canti the storage project would regulate the how flow of the colorado river increasing power generation at hoover davis parker and imperial mw dams in the lower bain two other ther possible dams on the southern edge of the colorado plateau are bridge and marble canon in arizona A power grid interconnecting all the upper basin power plants would provide the greatest efficiency water releases and power generation would be balanced among the units finn firm energy would be sold sod at 5 55 5 mills revenue would repay costs of construction of the units and would assist farmers to pay for the participating irrigation projects considerable power is being generated at present at project projects throughout the upper basin the present units are tied into local or regional power grids A bill to authorize the storage project failed to pass in the session of congress and it was to be introduced in the new session beginning in january A battle over the echo park unit will bring the project once again into the political I 1 relight limelight conservationists co e U oppose the echo park unit because it would flood part of dinosaur national monument and they propose other combinations bi of reservoirs proponents of the project argue there were intentions to build a dam in the area before the monument was created and that the echo park unit is to the project holdover storage reservoirs would be large enough to store water over long periods of years to level off of wet and dry cycles the national lead and zinc committee met in new york to consider what action should be taken to secure a better price for zinc |