History
The water and power control center for Colorado-Big Thompson Project's reservoirs, power plants, and transmission lines in Wyoming, Colorado, and western Nebraska is at the project headquarters in Loveland, Colorado. This Western Division of the Missouri River Basin is an interconnected system of 15 Reclamation power plants.
The President approved the Secretary of the Interior's finding of feasibility on December 21, 1937.
The Colorado-Big Thompson Project is one of the largest and most complex natural resource developments undertaken by Reclamation. It consists of over 100 structures integrated into a transmountain water diversion system through which multiple benefits are provided to the people. The project spreads over approximately 250 miles in Colorado. It stores, regulates, and diverts water from the Colorado River on the western slope of the Continental Divide to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. It provides supplemental water for irrigation of about 720,000 acres of land, municipal and industrial use, hydroelectric power, and water-oriented recreation opportunities.
Plan
Provides project water storage and maintains minimum water flows in the Blue River. This dam provides replacement storage for water diverted by the project to the eastern slope. The dam is an earthfill structure, 309 feet high, with a crest length of 1,150 feet and volume of 4,360,211 cubic yards. The power plant has two units with a total installed generating capacity of 26,000 kilowatts. The water and power control center for Colorado-Big Thompson Project's reservoirs, power plants, and transmission lines in Wyoming, Colorado, and western Nebraska is at the project headquarters in Loveland, Colorado. This Western Division of the Missouri River Basin is an interconnected system of 15 Reclamation powerplants. Ring seal gate removal and restoration of both gates; Unit 1 overhaul and penstock spot patchwork. Major overhaul on unit 2 in fiscal year 1994. Major switchyard and control room boards are in the final stages of modification.
