OCR Text |
Show High Water creates Problems on Colorado The proposal to release additional water was developed in consultation with the Colorado River Hasin States and other Federal, State, or local interests. Higginson indicated in-dicated that representatives of the basin States will review the modified operating plan in conjunction con-junction with the annual Hoover Integration Meeting in June 1979. At that meeting a schedule of water releases through the Hoover Dam Powerplant will be adopted for the next power year, which ends May 31, 1980. have resulted in increased storage in Lake Mead and combined with the forecast of much above normal runoff on the Colorado River, have increased the chances that mandatory flood control releases will have to be made from the dam later this year or in 1980. Reduced demand for water . has also resulted in less hydroelectric power being generated at Hoover, Davis, Parker Dams, with a resulting deificit of about 900 million KWH. To replace that amount of energy with steam-generated energy would require consumption of approximately 1.7 million barrels of oil. "Lake Mead currently contains 23.0 million acre-feet acre-feet of water, or 88 percent of its storage capacity," Higginson added, "and by releasing the extra water we will reduce the probability and magnitude of future required flood control releases, and at the same time generate enough additional ad-ditional hydro-electric energy to eliminate about half of the 900 million kilowatt-hour deficiency. Assistant Secretary of the Interior Guy R. Martin today signed a Bureau of Reclamation request to release additional water from near-full Colorado River reservoirs to provide more flood control space behind Hoover Dam and at the same time generate extra hydroelectric energy. Commissioner of Reclamation R. Keith Higginson said approximately ap-proximately 700.000 acre-feet acre-feet of water in excess of downstream requirements lor irrigation, municipal and industrial use will be released through the hudro- electric powerplants at Hoover, Davis and Parker Dams during the remainder of the 1979 water year which ends September 30,1979. Higginson explained that heavy precipitation this past winter has resulted in high flows on Colorado River tributaries downstream from Hoover Dam, thereby reducing demand for water released through Hoover Dam for downstream consumptive uses. The reduced demands |