The C01.ORADO River and Its Development 533 



000 acre-feet. Short-lived, "flashy" floods, greater than the highest 

 peak floods in the Colorado, occur at times. The flow on January 16, 

 1916, reached 220,000 cubic feet per second. It is fortunate that the 

 Gila floods do not come at the same time as the Colorado floods, in 

 May or June. Should they coincide, the menace to the Yuma and 

 Imperial valleys v^ould be intensified; the levees would be over- 

 whelmed. 



RESERVOIR SITES 



There are scores, hundreds, of storage sites in the middle and 

 upper parts of the Colorado basin. Many of them have been sur- 

 veyed, and at several of the sites the depth to bedrock has been as- 

 certained by diamond drilling. The Strawberry Valley site in Utah 

 and the Roosevelt site in Arizona and some small sites have been 

 occupied already. For the complete regulation and utilization of the 

 river, there are adequate natural opportunities; the real problem is 

 as to which is the best. A few of the largest and most promising 

 sites, those which are of greatest public interest, will be discussed. 



The Dewey reservoir site is situated on the Grand River just 

 west of the Utah-Colorado line. Although one of the last to be dis- 

 covered, it is one of the best. It is the only site for a large reservoir 

 on the Grand River except the Kremmling, and that site is occupied 

 by a railroad. The bedrock at the Dewey site is only 44 feet below 

 the river bed, and the capacity with a dam only 215 feet high from 

 river bed to spillway is 2,300,000 acre-feet. 



The Flaming Gorge site is on the Green River in Utah just 

 south of the Wyoming line. The greatest depth to bedrock is 73 

 feet, and a 215-foot dam will impound 3,120,000 acre-feet. The 

 width of the canyon is 200 feet. The Flaming Gorge and the Dewey 

 sites control the most important headwaters of the Colorado. Both 

 are excellent projects and should be under construction today. 



Another excellent site is on the Yampa tributary, near Juniper 

 Mountain. The drainage area is small, but the stream flow approx- 

 imates 1,000,000 acre- feet of water per year. A 200- foot dam would 

 provide a capacity of 1,500,000 acre-feet. The depth to bedrock is 

 24 feet. 



The Ouray reservoir site is on the Green River a hundred miles 

 below the Flaming Gorge site. This site is remarkable in that a dam 



