of the Colorado River Storage Project 50th ANNIVERSARY DECADE FOR THE ASPINALL UNIT of the Colorado River Storage Project CRSP Act passed in 1956 – Complete development of the Colorado River Basin Two types of projects: Major 'holdover' storage, with big powerplants to generate revenue for – Participating projects – Upper Basin irrigation and M&I water projects that could not meet Bureau of Reclamation payback requirements without the hydropower subsidy. Paonia and Dallas Creek Dams & Reservoirs are the only two participating projects built in the Gunnison Basin The Bureau of Reclamation opened offices in Gunnison and Montrose in 1961, to begin work on the 'Curecanti Project' (renamed the Wayne N. Aspinall Unit in 1980). Construction was finally finished in 1978.

Curecanti Project (Aspinall Unit) was designed as a three-dam unit primarily for power production: Blue Mesa Dam & Reservoir – the major storage unit, 940,800 acre-feet capacity, 2 generators with a 86 megawatt capacity. Construction began in 1962; declared completed in August 1971. Morrow Point Dam – the major generating unit, only 117,000 acre-feet of storage but 165 megawatts of hydroelectric capacity. Construction also began in 1962; every-thing done May 1972. Crystal Dam – small reservoir (26,000 af) primarily for regulating and stabilizing the flow below the Unit. Generates 32 mW. Construction work began in 1964, was finally completed in 1978.

Dam height: 468 feet Storage: 117,100 acre-feet Gated Spill Capacity: ~40,000 cfs Frank Kugel Photo

Types of Dams All dams are designed to deal with hydrostatic pressure: the force generated by the weight of water pushing to move on downstream – pressure that increases with depth.

MORROW POINT DAM The first large thin-arch double-curvature dam in the United States.

Morrow Point Dam in construction….

...compared to Hoover Dam in construction

The Powerplant

Wayne Aspinall in the powerplant Bureau of Reclamation photos by Vern Jetley

1965-2015 Fifty years ago this summer, Blue Mesa Dam was 'topped out,' and the tunnel diverting water around it was closed; the Gunnison River was con-trolled for the next few centuries. Late in that same summer 50 years ago, construction crews began to pour the concrete for the Morrow Point Dam – one of the Bureau of Reclamation's most elegant and daring structures.