General

The Fry-Ark Project provides water for beneficial use to Colorado water users across the state.

• On Colorado’s West Slope, Ruedi Reservoir stores water for irrigation, domestic and municipal water supply, industrial, and environmental purposes such as fish and wildlife enhancement.
• On Colorado’s East Slope, diversions from the Fryingpan River and its tributaries provide supplemental irrigation water for 217,000 irrigated acres and over 900,000 residents in Southeastern Colorado.
• The Mt. Elbert powerplant also produces enough electricity each year to power approximately 20,000 households.

Managing partners include:

• Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife
• U.S. Forest Service

History

Early History

The eastern slope area of the project north of the Arkansas River was a part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The remainder of the basin was claimed by Texas following the war with Mexico. Mexican claims to the territory were relinquished in 1845 when Texas entered the Union.

The project area was visited by various Spanish explorers during 1760-80. The first official exploration by the United States was made in 1806-07 by Lieutenant Zebulon Pike. Later explorations were directed by Captain John C. Fremont and Captain John W. Gunnison. The first permanent settlements were not established until after the discovery of gold in 1859-61. With the mining boom came immigrants who turned to agriculture to supply foodstuffs for the expanding population. Large cattle ranches appeared as the result of the cattle drives from Texas.

Investigations

Studies by the Bureau of Reclamation on a transmountain diversion project began in 1936. Intensive investigation started in 1941 resulted in a potential planning report in 1947 and 1948, followed by a special report in 1949 and official recommendations in 1951.

A revised planning report under the name Fryingpan-Arkansas Project in 1953 led to congressional approval of the project. In September 1959, a report that supplemented House Document No. 187, 83d Congress, 1st session, recommended Ruedi Dam and Reservoir instead of the previously recommended Aspen Dam and Reservoir.

Authorization

Construction of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project was authorized by Public Law 87-590 (77 Stat. 393) signed by the President on August 16, 1962.

Construction

Construction began with Ruedi Dam and Reservoir in 1964, and numerous project features are completed or under construction. Initial project water for irrigation and municipal and industrial use was available in September 1975. Initial power is schedules in January 1981 (100,000 kilowatts) and an additional 100,000 kilowatts is scheduled to be available in 1983.

Initial project water delivery to Colorado Springs and Fountain Valley towns is scheduled for 1982; for the Arkansas Valley towns, delivery is scheduled for 1985.

Operating Agencies

The Bureau of Reclamation operates and maintains the dams and reservoirs. The recreation and fish and wildlife facilities and resources at Ruedi Reservoir and Turquoise Lake are managed by the Forest Service. At Pueblo Dam and Reservoir, these facilities and resources are under the management of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

BENEFITS

Irrigation

Water diverted from the western slope and regulation of the Arkansas River flows will provide supplemental irrigation supplies for 280,600 irrigable areas in the Arkansas Valley. The project will enable farms to sustain and possibly increase the level of present agricultural productivity per acre. It will permit farmers to diversify the crops produced and be more responsive to market demands for food and fiber.

Because of the ability to diversify crops and meet peak demands, the value of total crop production of the Arkansas Valley will be increased. Major crops grown are alfalfa, corn, sorghum, and sugar beets. Specialty crops such as onions, beans, tomatoes, and melons are grown extensively in the valley.

Municipal and Industrial Water

Water for municipal and industrial use will be developed by the project to supplement existing supplies. Two separate water delivery pipeline systems, the Fountain Valley and Arkansas Valley Conduits, will begin at Pueblo Dam and convey water to organizations and communities on the eastern slope.

The cities of Colorado Springs and Aurora have contracted to use the conveyance system of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project from Turquoise Lake to Clear Creek Reservoir for transportation of municipal water supplies owned by the two cities. Homestake Project water will be pumped by that entity from Clear Creek Reservoir into the Upper South Platte River Basin for delivery to the city water systems.

Recreation and Fish and Wildlife

Recreation facilities are being developed throughout the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project by the Bureau of Reclamation in cooperation with the National Park Service, Forest Service, and State and local agencies.

Ruedi Reservoir and the North and South Side Collection Systems are on the western slope, where snow-capped mountain peaks reach over 13,000 feet in elevation and thickly forested slopes provide an exceptionally beautiful background for swimming, boating, water skiing, fishing, picnicking, camping, and general relaxation. The Forest Service is developing and managing these recreation facilities.

Dominant game fish found in the rivers on the western slope include rainbow, brown, cutthroat, and brook trout. Development of Ruedi Dam and Reservoir has increased the available fish habitat in the area. Operation of the dam has exposed about six acres of gravel which now serve as a brown trout spawning ground immediately downstream from the dam. The gravel areas and regulated streamflow have improved the fishery through increased natural reproduction, and increased recreation opportunities in the immediate area. The most common big game species are deer and elk; black bears are seen occasionally.

Recreation activities at Turquoise Lake include sightseeing, camping, swimming, water skiing, boating, and hunting. Development of the lake has increased the aquatic habitat and surface acreage available for fish. Species in this area include kokanee salmon, and rainbow, brown, and lake trout. Recreation facilities are administered by the Forest Service.

Recreation in the Twin Lakes and Mt. Elbert Forebay is water-oriented, with fishing and boating being the major activities. Facilities consist of a boat ramp, boat and trailer parking lot, and two parking lots with minimum sanitary facilities. Construction of the Mt. Elbert Conduit will permit delivery of up to 3,000 gallons per minute of high-quality water to the Leadville National Fish Hatchery. Dominant big game species are deer and elk, which migrate into the Twin Lakes area each winter and scatter throughout the area during the summer. Elk range north of the lakes in the winter. Big and small game hunting in season is allowed in the areas adjacent to Twin Lakes.

Major recreation development planned for Pueblo Reservoir will provide water-oriented recreation in the Arkansas Valley. Facilities are being constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation and managed by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. North and South Shore boat ramp, marina, parking, and harbor excavations have been completed.

A combination warm water fish hatchery and cold-water rearing unit, to be managed and administered by the State of Colorado's Department of Natural Resources will be constructed downstream from Pueblo Dam. This hatchery will provide most of the fingerlings for stocking Pueblo Reservoir and other reservoirs, streams and lakes within the project.

Plan

There are two distinct areas of the project: The western slope, located within the boundaries of the White River National Forest at elevations above 10,000 feet; and the eastern slope in the Arkansas River Valley. These areas are separated by the Continental Divide which, in many places, exceeds an elevation of 12,000 feet. The project plan consists of facilities designed primarily to divert water from the west slope to the water-short areas of the eastern slope.

There are six dams and reservoirs in the project: Ruedi Dam and Reservoir, on the western side of the mountain, is located on the Fryingpan River upstream from Basalt, Colorado; four dams and reservoirs on the eastern slope in the upper regions include Sugar Loaf Dam and Turquoise Lake, Mt. Elbert Forebay Dam and Reservoir, Twin Lakes Dam and Reservoir, and Clear Creek Dam and Reservoir. The largest of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project storage units, Pueblo Dam and Reservoir, is on the Arkansas River west of Pueblo, Colorado.

Sixteen diversion structures on the western slope are used to divert water into the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project collection system. The plan includes nine tunnels with a combined length of 26.7 miles.

The Western Slope

Ruedi Dam and Reservoir provide storage for replacement and regulation of approximately 100,000 acre-feet of water for the western slope users. This water will be used for irrigation and municipal benefits, and recreation and fish and wildlife enhancement.

The North and South Side Collection Systems on the western slope are being built to collect the melting snows and runoff from the high mountains. The diverted waters of the Fryingpan and Roaring Fork River Basins flow into the inlet portal of the Charles H. Boustead Tunnel. This tunnel conveys all the water from the North and South Collection Systems through the Continental Divide to Turquoise Lake.

The Eastern Slope

Turquoise Lake and Sugar Loaf Dam are located just east of the Continental Divide, approximately 5 miles west of Leadville, Colorado. The lake provides storage capacity for the regulation of project water flowing from the Charles H. Boustead Tunnel.

Mt. Elbert Conduit, a 10.5-mile-long, 90-inch-diameter pipe, will convey water from Turquoise Lake to Mt. Elbert Forebay. The Halfmoon Diversion Dam will intercept the excess flows from Halfmoon Creek for diversion to Mt. Elbert Conduit. Water delivered to the forebay will be used for generation of power in the Mt. Elbert Pumped-Storage Power Plant. The power plant is at the northwest corner of the lower lake of Twin Lakes. After going through the power plant, the water will flow into Twin Lakes.

The plan provides for a new dam approximately 2,500 feet downstream from the present Twin Lakes. From Twin Lakes, the water will be conveyed through the Otero Canal to the Otero Power Plant at Clear Creek Reservoir. Power generated at the Mt. Elbert Pumped-Storage Power Plant and the Otero Power Plant will be delivered to existing power transmission systems in the area.

From Clear Creek Reservoir, the water will flow down the Arkansas River to Pueblo Dam where some of the project water will be diverted to the Fountain Valley and Arkansas Valley Conduits for delivery to municipal and industrial water users. The Pueblo Reservoir is the terminal storage feature for the project.

The Arkansas Valley Conduit transports water for municipal and industrial uses from Pueblo Reservoir to towns in the Arkansas Valley as far east as Lamar, Colorado.

When completed, the project will provide an average annual diversion of 69,200 acre-feet of water from the western slope to the eastern slope.

Ruedi Dam and Reservoir

Ruedi Dam is on the Fryingpan River about 15 miles east of Basalt, Colorado. The dam creates a reservoir with a total capacity of 102,369 acre-feet. Ruedi Dam is a rock and earthfill structure that stands about 285 feet high above the streambed, has a crest length of 1,042 feet, and contains approximately 3,745,200 cubic yards of material.

The concrete spillway structure has an uncontrolled ogee-type crest, a chute section, a stilling basin, and a bridge over the spillway. The spillway has a capacity of 5,540 cubic feet per second. The outlet works, located under the right abutment of the dam, consists of a hexagonal intake structure with trash racks and a bulkhead gate, a 10-foot-diameter concrete-lined circular tunnel to a gate chamber housing a 5- by 6-foot high-pressure gate, an 11-foot-diameter concrete-lined horseshoe tunnel to a gate chamber housing a 5-by 6-foot high-pressure gate, an 11-foot-diameter concrete-lined horseshoe tunnel with a 76-inch-diameter steel pipe, a control house with two sets of 3.5- by 4-foot tandem gates and wye to a 76-inch-diameter steel pipe stub with a bulkhead just ahead of the control house. This bulkhead is to provide service to a future pipeline which will supply water to the potential Basalt Project. A shaft house and adit give access to the gate chamber of the outlet works and auxiliary works. The capacity of the outlet works is 1,810 cubic feet per second.

The auxiliary outlet works consists of an intake structure with trash racks, a 6-foot-diameter concrete-lined circular tunnel to a gate chamber housing a set of 2.5- by 3-foot tandem gates, and a concrete-lined 5- by 6-foot flat-bottom tunnel. The capacity is 600 cubic feet per second.

A concrete bypass, consisting of a concrete chute and stilling basin, bypasses flows of Rocky Fork Creek past the discharge of the spillway and auxiliary outlet.

Sugar Loaf Dam and Turquoise Lake

Sugar Loaf Dam and Turquoise Lake are east of the Continental Divide on the Lake Fork of the Arkansas River in Lake County, approximately 5 miles west of Leadville. The reservoir storage capacity is 129,432 acre-feet. Sugar Loaf Dam is an earthfill structure, has a length of 2,020 feet, a height above riverbed of 135 feet, and contains approximately 1,833,700 cubic yards of material. In addition to the main earthfill section of the dam, there is a dike about 6,000 feet to the northeast. This dike is 475 feet long and 11 feet high. The spillway has a capacity of 2,920 cubic feet per second and consists of a morning-glory intake structure, a 16.5-foot-diameter monolithic concrete conduit, a chute and a stilling basin. The outlet works consists of an intake structure with trash racks, a 7-foot-diameter concrete conduit with a steel liner, a gate chamber housing a 5- by 6-foot high-pressure gate, an 11-foot-diameter concrete conduit with a steel liner, a 72-inch-diameter steel outlet pipe which bifurcates into two parallel branches just ahead of the control house for the river outlet, a river outlet control house with two 3.5-foot-square high-pressure gates for each branch, and a chute and stilling basin discharging to Lake Fork. A short 72-inch-diameter steel branch outlet pipe with a bulkhead was provided upstream from the bifurcation for future use, and as an outlet to the Mt. Elbert Conduit. The capacity of the river outlet is 1,120 cubic feet per second, and the capacity of the outlet to the Mt. Elbert Conduit is 370 cubic feet per second.

Pueblo Dam and Reservoir

Pueblo Dam is the terminal storage feature for the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. The dam is located on the Arkansas River in Pueblo County about 6 miles upstream and west of the city of Pueblo. The reservoir has a total storage capacity of 357,000 acre-feet; 30,000 acre-feet of dead and inactive capacity; 234,000 acre-feet of conservation capacity; 66,000 acre-feet of joint-use capacity; and 27,000 acre-feet of exclusive flood-control capacity. The concrete dam and massive-head buttress-type spillway structure is the principal control structure for the reservoir. The concrete section is 1,750 feet wide with a maximum structural height of 250 feet. The spillway has a crest width of 550 feet and was designed for a maximum spill discharge of 191,500 cubic feet per second. The river outlet works is controlled by two 4-foot-square high-pressure gates and regulates normal water releases into the river. Additional releases may be made to the river through three separate spillway outlet works. Each is controlled by two 6- by 6.5-foot high-pressure gates. Delivery of water for municipal and industrial use is made from the south outlet works, which is a multilevel intake structure capable of taking water from the reservoir at different levels, thus providing a degree of control over water temperature and quality. Water deliveries from the fish hatchery outlet works have similar controls. Included in the outlet works are a stilling basin and outlet channel, a concrete river plug in the river channel, and the Bessemer Ditch headworks.

Mt. Elbert Forebay Dam and Reservoir

Mt. Elbert Forebay occupies a saddle on a ridge above Twin Lakes Reservoir. The forebay will be impounded by a dam on the north side and a dike on the south rim. An outlet channel from the southeast corner of the reservoir will connect to the inlet-outlet structure for the power plant penstock. The rolled earthfill forebay dam is about 2,600 feet long and 92 feet high. A 130-foot-long earth dike closes a low saddle at the southwest end of the reservoir. The forebay is lined with a 5-foot-thick, water-tight layer of impervious silt clay. There is no spillway in the forebay dam. There are also no outlet works, other than the penstock inlet-outlet structure. Natural flow into the reservoir is negligible.

Twin Lakes Dam and Reservoir

Twin Lakes Dam and Reservoir will be located approximately 13 miles south of Leadville, in Lake County. The reservoir will have a total capacity of 141,000 acre-feet. The dam will be a zoned, rolled earthfill structure with a height above streambed of 53 feet. The crest of the dam will be 30 feet wide and 3,150 feet long. The spillway will be on the left abutment of the dam and will have a capacity of 1,400 cubic feet per second. The spillway will be an uncontrolled concrete morning-glory inlet structure with a 12-foot-diameter concrete conduit under the dam embankment and a concrete stilling basin. A channel downstream from the stilling basin will carry the water to Lake Creek. The outlet works located in the right abutment will deliver 3,465 cubic feet per second to the river. It will have an inlet structure with trash racks, two8-foot-diameter concrete conduits with steel liners, and a gate chamber housing two 6.5- by 8-foot high-pressure gates. Twin 12.5-foot-diameter concrete conduits, each containing a 98-inch-diameter steel outlet pipe, will lead from the gate chamber to the river outlet control house where two 6.5- by 7.5-foot high-pressure gates will be located. A chute, stilling basin, and a 400-foot-long outlet channel will lead to Lake Creek. The Otero Canal will be served by the wye-junction structure appurtenant to the outlet works upstream from the river outlet control house, a 98-inch-diameter steel pipe, a control house with four 5-foot-square high-pressure gates, and a chute and stilling basin.

Clear Creek Dam and Reservoir

Clear Creek Dam and Reservoir will be located on Clear Creek a short distance from its confluence with the Arkansas River. The dam will be an earth and rockfill embankment with a crest length of 2,200 feet and will have a height of 75 feet above streambed. There is an earthfill dike with a crest length of 600 feet on the north side of the lake. The Pueblo Board of Water Works has storage rights of 11,440 acre-feet in Clear Creek Reservoir, and the reservoir will act as an afterbay for the Otero Power Plant. The spillway will be a combined concrete spillway and outlet works structure. It will have a gated inlet structure, a concrete chute passing under U.S. Highway 24, and a stilling basin and channel leading to the Arkansas River.

The Collection System

The North and South Side Collection Systems are located at approximately 10,000 feet elevation. The facilities are designed to divert and carry water from the Fryingpan and Roaring Fork River Basins to the inlet portal of the Charles H. Boustead Tunnel. This tunnel transports water from the collection system through the Continental Divide to the Arkansas River Basin.

The North Side Collection System is designed to divert, collect, and transport an average of 18,400 acre-feet of water annually through facilities of the Mormon, Carter, Ivanhoe, Granite, Lily Pad, North Cunningham, Middle Cunningham, and South Cunningham Creeks.

The South Side Collection System is designed to transport an average of 50,800 acre-feet of project water annually from the Fryingpan and Roaring Fork River Basins. Facilities located on Hunter, Midway, and No Name Creeks will collect and divert water from Sawyer and Chapman Creeks, the South Fork of the Fryingpan River, and the main stem of the Fryingpan River downstream of Marten Creek.

North Side Collection System

Carter Tunnel: Carter Tunnel will be the first collection tunnel on the North Side Collection System. Water will be diverted into the tunnel by the Carter Diversion Dam through the 300-foot, 42-inch Carter Feeder Conduit to the inlet of the Carter Tunnel. The North Fork Diversion Dam will be a drop-inlet structure that will divert North Fork Creek water into the Carter Tunnel by the 280-foot-long North Fork Feeder Conduit. Carter Tunnel is 0.54 miles long and has an 8-foot horseshoe cross section with a capacity of 130 cubic feet per second. Water from Carter Tunnel will flow to the Mormon Conduit.

Mormon Tunnel: The Mormon Creek diversion structure will be connected to the intake portal of the Mormon Tunnel by the Mormon Feeder Conduit. The conduit will be a 250-foot-long structure, including a Parshall flume measuring device. The tunnel is 1.4 miles long, with an 8.25-foot horseshoe-shaped section having a capacity of 190 cubic feet per second. The water from Mormon Tunnel will flow to the Cunningham Tunnel.

Cunningham Tunnel: The North Cunningham, Middle Cunningham, and South Cunningham diversion structures will be connected to the Cunningham Conduit by feeder conduits which extend to the Cunningham Tunnel. The length of the three feeder conduits is 2,700 feet, and the Cunningham Conduit is 4,170 feet long. The Cunningham Tunnel is 2.86 miles long and has a horseshoe shape of two sizes: 8.75 and 7.5 feet. The capacity is 270 cubic feet per second. The Cunningham Tunnel flows into the Nast Tunnel.

Nast Tunnel: Ivanhoe Diversion Dam diverts water from Ivanhoe Creek and the Cunningham Tunnel through the Ivanhoe Creek crossing into the inlet of Nast Tunnel. The Granite Diversion Dam diverts water through the Granite Siphon to the Granite Adit, which drops the flow into the Nast Tunnel. The Lily Pad Diversion Dam drops the flow into Nast Tunnel. Nast Tunnel is 3 miles long, with a circular-shaped section with two diameters: 7.67 and 9.33 feet. The capacity of the tunnel is 360 cubic feet per second. The flow is conveyed to the Charles H. Boustead Tunnel by the Fryingpan Conduit, which is 2,481 feet long and 84 inches in diameter.

South Side Collection System

Hunter Tunnel: Hunter Tunnel will be 7.6 miles long. It will transport the flows diverted at No Name, Midway, and Hunter Creeks to Chapman Gulch at the Chapman Diversion Dam. The design capacity ranges from 90 cubic feet per second at No Name Creek, the point of the beginning of the South Side Collection system, to Midway Creek with 270 cubic feet per second at Chapman Gulch on the Chapman diversion site. No Name, Midway, and the Hunter Creek diversion structures are all similar. Each has a sluicegate for bypassing all streamflow when water is not being diverted. When diversions are being made, minimum flow will be released through a bypass to maintain the stream. A side overflow section provides for passing floodflows. Flows will be diverted through a short flume section to a shaft which will drop the water into the Hunter Tunnel. Hunter Tunnel is a semi horseshoe-shaped structure with two sizes: 8.5 and 7.33 feet.

Chapman Tunnel: The Sawyer diversion drop inlet diverts water from Sawyer Lake into Sawyer Feeder Conduit (3,098 feet in length) and drops the water at Chapman Gulch. The water then flows to Chapman Diversion Dam, with the flow from Hunter Tunnel, to be diverted into Chapman Tunnel. Chapman Tunnel is a 2.8-mile-long, 7-foot horseshoe-shaped structure, with a capacity of 300 cubic feet per second.

South Fork Tunnel: The South Fork Diversion Dam diverts water from South Fork Creek to the South Fork Siphon, where it continues with the flow from the South Fork Creek and is conveyed by the South Fork Feeder Conduit to the inlet of the South Fork Tunnel. The South Fork Tunnel is a 3.1-mile-long, 8-foot horseshoe-shaped section, and has a capacity of 450 cubic feet per second. The tunnel discharges water into the Charles H. Boustead Tunnel. The Fryingpan Diversion Dam diverts water into the Fryingpan Siphon under the Fryingpan River to the inlet structure at Charles H. Boustead Tunnel.

Charles H. Boustead Tunnel: The Charles H. Boustead Tunnel conveys all the water collected at the Fryingpan diversion and in the North and South Side Collection Systems under the Continental Divide and into Turquoise Lake. The 10.5-foot-diameter, horseshoe-shaped tunnel is approximately 5.4 miles long. The capacity of the tunnel is 945 cubic feet per second. The Fryingpan Valley control structure at the inlet portal of the tunnel will regulate flows entering the Charles H. Boustead Tunnel. It is a concrete junction structure which contains two overflow weirs, one for each of the collection systems, a baffled apron wasteway drop structure to return the excess flows to the Fryingpan River, a connection and access hatchway structure to receive the flows from the Fryingpan Feeder Conduit, and a control structure housing a 10.5- by 12-foot radial gate. The entire structure is underground.

Mt. Elbert Conduit: Mt. Elbert Conduit will convey project water from Sugar Loaf Dam to the Mt. Elbert Forebay. Water delivered to the forebay will be used for the generation of power at the Mt. Elbert Pumped-Storage Power Plant. At Halfmoon Creek, additional water will be diverted to the conduit for delivery to the Mt. Elbert Forebay. A pipe turnout and conduit will deliver supplemental water from the conduit to the Leadville National Fish Hatchery. The conduit will be a 90-inch-diameter pipe, 10.5 miles long, and designed for a flow of 370 cubic feet per second from Sugar Loaf Dam to the forebay. It will consist of a series of siphon and free-flow conduit reaches. The Halfmoon Diversion Dam will intercept the excess flows of the Halfmoon Creek for diversion to Mt. Elbert Conduit. The diversion dam will consist of a concrete spillway overflow structure, earth wing dike structure, a gated concrete structure to bypass irrigation flows for downstream use, and a heading for a feeder conduit. The Halfmoon Feeder Conduit will be a 60-inch-diameter pipe, 3,202 feet long, and will deliver the flow diverted at Halfmoon Creek to the Mt. Elbert Conduit. Flow capacity of the feeder conduit will be 150 cubic feet per second.

Fountain Valley Conduit: The Fountain Valley Conduit will begin at Pueblo Dam, about 6 miles west of Pueblo, and end near Academy Boulevard, about 2 miles south of Colorado Springs. The conduit will convey approximately 20,100 acre-feet of project water annually to the communities of Stratmoore Hills, Widefield, Security, and Fountain. The Fountain Valley Conduit will be 45 miles long and will range from a 42- to 14-inch-diameter conduit. It will have five pumping plants, two regulating tanks, two surge tanks, and four terminal tanks. The capacity will be 31 cubic feet per second.

Arkansas Valley Conduit: The Arkansas Valley Conduit will convey an estimated average annual requirement of 9,648,000 acre-feet of project water from Pueblo Dam east to 42 organizations and communities in the Arkansas Valley. The length of the conduit will be 218 miles and will range from 42 to 2 inches in diameter. It will contain five pumping plants with three storage tanks and five flow-control structures. The capacity will be 38 cubic feet per second.

Otero Canal: Otero Canal will carry water from Twin Lakes to the Otero Power Plant and the Homestake Turnout near the power plant intake structure. The canal will be 5.5 miles long; of this, 0.7 miles will be a bench flume, 0.2 miles a pipe siphon, 0.3 miles a tunnel, and the remaining 4.3 miles will be an open trapezoidal concrete-lined canal section. The canal will have a capacity of 725 cubic feet per second.

Power System

The Mt. Elbert Pumped-Storage Power Plant is on the north shore of picturesque Twin Lakes, approximately 13 miles southwest of Leadville, Colorado, at the foot of 14,433-foot Mt. Elbert, Colorado's highest mountain peak. The power plant was designed with modern architectural lines and is an all-concrete structure equivalent to a 14-story building, although most of the structure is below ground.

Power is generated from water stored in the Mt. Elbert Forebay. The water drops through the penstocks an average of 445 feet, spinning each of two 138,000 horsepower hydroelectric turbine-generators and developing 200,000 kilowatts of electrical power.

To supplement the flow-through water received from Turquoise Lake through the Mt. Elbert Conduit, these generators have been designed to operate as a 170,000-horsepower electric motor which drives the turbines in reverse and pumps the same water back up to refill the forebay. This pumping mode normally will be used during the very early morning hours, when power demands are low and surplus low-rate power is received from other generating stations. This pump-back storage principle is advantageous since the generating units can be started quickly and adjustments of power output can be made rapidly to respond to varying patterns of daily and seasonal power demands.

Overview

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Other

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