Did You Know...

...that the new Wolford Mountain Project, which has been described as a dam so good that even environmentalists declined to oppose it, is considered a model for future high-altitude water storage projects in Colorado, according to an article in the August 1995 issue of U.S. Water News.

The $47 million project, financed by the City of Denver, will store 60,000 acre feet of water on Muddy Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River, near Kremmling, Colorado. Harza Engineering Company performed the geotechnical investigations and designed the dam; Boyle Engineering Company designed the spillway and was the prime consulting firm. The local economic benefits from recreation are expected to be significant.

Proponents of the project say that the success story of Wolford Mountain is one that should be repeated in other high valleys of Colorado. Particularly in years of heavy snowmelt, as much as a third of Colorado's legal share of the Colorado River Compact is lost to Arizona, California and Nevada.

Thanks to David E. Kleiner for contributing this "Benefits of Dams."

(reprinted from the USCOLD Newsletter, November 1995, page 3)