,-c:, c:r7:J s ?;;j --~..-=: :...------Instead of Udall plan, California utility says . . . Southwest Should Tap the Snake River The Los Angeles Department of Wa­ . in southern Californi;, presumabTy _to ter and Power has hatched a vast water replace the en tire 1.2 million acre-ft plan that may influence California's 1 annual flow of the Colorado Aqueduct, response to the U . S. Interior Depart­ and the rest would be conveyed in a ment's Pacific Southwest Water Plan new aqueduct to Lake Havasu. (ENR Sept. 5, p. 18). A series of seven pumping stations The Los Angeles plan calls for a 519- would lift the Snake River water, al- mile aqueduct to tap the Snake River in 1eady 3,000 ft abo1·e sea level, an addi­ Idaho and deliver water to Lake Mead tional 3,200 ft. It would then flow by on the Colorado River. gravity across the high plateau of east­ The Los Angeles agency told a state­ ern Nevada. wide conference in Sacramento, called In southern Nevada, the water would by the California Water Commission, drop through power plants, taking ad­ that its plan would not only achieve the vantage of about a 4,500-ft head, and major objecti,·es of the Interior De­ discharge into Lake Mead. This new partment plan with less impact on supply, augmenting Colorado River California, but also would cut costs by fl ow, would be tapped at Lake Havasu $800 million. where 1.2 million acre-ft would go to DWP general manager and chief en­ southern California via the Colorado gineer Samuel B. Nelson said his de­ Aqueduct. The added flow in the partment's plan would: Colorado would produce a power bonus • Not tamper with the construction at both Hoover and Davis dams. schedule of the California State Water :\fr. Nelson says U.S. Bureau of Rec­ Plan. lamation and Corps of Engineers' re­ • Make it unnecessary for the fed­ ports verify the availability of surplus eral government to export northern SNAKE RIVER would supply Southwest. water in the Snake. And he also says California water to Arizona. the pump lift on the Snake River end • Improve the quality of Colorado under way. Unveiled by Gov. Edmund of the aqueduct could pro,·ide a large R iver water used bv Arizona, California C . Brown (ENR Oct. 10, p. 46), the market for power projects in the North­ and Mexico, alleviating the present plan envisages a 45-year, $3.7-billion west and assist the economy in that salinity problems. construction program financed by all area. • Increase the power-generating capa­ lc,·cls of government. This would in­ The Uda)l plan contemplates the bilities of the HoO\·er and Davis dam volve constructing 3 5 dams and reser­ eventual drying up of the Colorado powerhouses. voirs, 70 miles of tunnels, 10 pumping River Aqueduct, which now serves 6 • Avoid junking the Colorado River pl.mts aud I 5 power plants, all would million people in southern California. Aqueduct built and operated b,· the be located in the north coastal area of Of this Mr. Nelson says, "Even if the Metropolitan \Vater District of South­ the state. people of southern California were re­ ern California. The plan to divert surplus Snake imbursed for the monev thev have in­ • Erase the fears expressed by Cali­ River water, developed by D\VP engi­ vested ... it would be a g"ross waste fornia farm and business groups over neers under Mr. Nelson's direction, in­ of resources to abandon a project that the impact of the federal plan on the volves an aqueduct with pumping sta­ still has a useful life of 50 vears or state's economv. tions and power generating plants that longer." · DWP says the Snake River Aqueduct would run from the Snake near Twin The DWP alternative would be con­ would cost $1.4 billion and add 2 .4 mil­ Falls, Idaho, ,outh through Nevada to structed over a seven-,·ear period to an lion acre-ft of water annually to the Lake Mead, the Hoover Darn reservoir initial capacity of 1.2 5 ,1111:: 2'1 acre-ft supply in the Lower Colorado River east of Las Vegas. per year. Facilities such as canais, tun­ Basin. The Lower Basin supply other­ Mr. Udall's Pacific Southwest Plan nels and reservoirs, which don't lend wise would be inadequate to meet ex­ would provide about 3.4 million ,1cre-ft themselves· to staging, would be com­ isting uses as well as the requirements per vcar of additional water to the pleted initially to their ultimate 2. 5-mil­ of the proposed C entral Arizona Project Southwes t. One million acre-ft of this lion-acre-ft capacity. The expansion pro­ (ENR June 13, p. 24 ). would be deri\'ed from a num her of gram would be completed within 12 Under the federal plan, un\'eiled last projects that would conserve Colorado years of the start of construction. August by Interior Secretary Stewart River water now being lost bv seepage "The Snake-Colorado project,'" says Udall, it would cost $2.2 billion to ex­ and transpiration (evaporation caused Mr. Nelson, "is a preferable method of port the same amount of water- 2.4 h1· vegetati on that consumes large meeting the principal water-supph• ob- million acre-ft- from northern Cali­ , "unb of water and was tes it to the 1ect1\'cS of Secretary Udall's plan ... fornia to southern California and the atmos phere) . and Wl' hope it will be useful to Go\'er­ Parker Dam reservoir, Lake Havas u. The ha lance of 2.--l million ,1 crc-ft nor Bro wn and others in reaching a DWP savs water delivered via the would be impounded in large rc,cn ons dl'ci~10 n on the state's official comments Snake-Colorado project would cost on the Trinih aud Eel rive r, 111 co,1,tal on thL· l 'cL1ll proposal." about $32 an acre-ft co mpared with northern California, and conveved to i\ tr Udall asked the go1 ernor<, of $44 or more under the Udall plan . ,outhern Californ ia primarily bv en­ C.1liforniJ. Ariwna. ;\c, l LLl, Llt.1h and On the heels of the Udall pro posal. lJrg111g the Califorma Aqueduct plm "-"L:,, \ lc\JL

November 14, 1963 • ENGINEERING NEWS-RECORD