37°32′58″N 105°40′26″W / 37.549486°N 105.673844°W
The Closed Basin Project is a groundwater extraction project in the San Luis Valley in Colorado, United States, that began in the 1970s, and remains in operation in the 2020s. The project is managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation.
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Seattle City Light -- A History of the Skagit Hydroelectric Project (closed caption)
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Transcription
I'm Kelly Guenther for Seattle City Light and Highway 20 makes it pretty easy these days to get up to this Skagit project but in years past the only way to get here was either by hoofing it in taking a mule train or hopping a locomotive that's because this was rugged territory very rugged while the upper Skagit indians call this area home ten thousand years white settlers really only began settling here during a short lived gold rush a century ago well in 1879-1880 there wasn't goldrush up on ruby creek in 1879 a group of upper Skagit Indians and Skagit Valley residents actually came in to the to ruby creek and found gold winter set in him they didn't have a chance to to continue their mining activities so they ended up going back down the valley seattle and more and more publicity was sort of hyped up and they ended up uh... coming back in eighteen eighty well there estimates vary from around the thousands of three thousand miners who were along ruby creek granite creekall in those areas searching for a allusive gold not many found it but the area's natural beauty and other resources were discovered these included very narrow gorgeous like diablo canyon here which is only thirteen feet across at one point early engineers knew some of these mountain streams would be perfect for a hydro electric project in nineteen eighteen the federal government gave the growing city of seattle the permission to build dams in the upper skagit valley bustling seattle needed the extra power plants like the Cedar Falls Dam on the Cedar River the lake unions steam plant we're getting taxed by growing energy needs the puish for the Skagit Project came from JD Ross, the charismatic leader of seattle city light at the time a dapperly dressed electrical engineer... Ross didn't want to buy extra energy from the private market.. He feared private energy companies would gouge the city for profits and so the Skagit project began right here in Gorge Canyon for the closest town by train to this area was Rockport twenty miles away there for the project began using horses in mules workers literally had to hoof it in it in right beside their beasts of burden soon after seattle city light build its own rail line and the company town of Newhalem emerged it was a sprawling place made up of thousands of workers housed in a hundreds of bunk houses and they work year round right through the brutal north cascade winters they also acheived some true engineering feats two-mile long tunnels through solid granite was created so waters could run from Gorge lake to the gorge power house and one hundred and forty miles of transmission lines and towers were erected to carry the power to seattle by nineteen twenty four gorge dam had been completed and Newhalem became home to not only its workers but family... work also began on Diablo Dam and train lines had to be pushed further into the rugged mountains Ken Cuthbert was a long time worker for seattle city light everybody had to ride the train even the school kids rode the train down there from Newhalem and Diablo and got on the school bus from there to Concrete where they went to high school trains played a vital role in daily life especially in getting construction equipment to the dams path to the diablo worksite was so steep this incline another engineering marvel for its day had to be built up sourdough mountain to carry the train cars in fact it's still in use rises vertically nearly four hundred feet in nineteen twenty eight seattle city light superintendent J.D. Ross began inviting tourists up for overnight stays to see the monumental work taking place Jack Folsum and grew up in Newhalem and Diablo they had been train loads that would come from Rockport they'd park in Rockport and either it was steam engine number six or later diesels would take seven carloads... closed cars and maybe up to eleven eleven carloads of tourists and they'd stay up in the bunk houses and some were even in tents and they have plywood floor an a tent top newhelm was outfitted with five globe lamps and extensive gardens were created Ladder creek falls garden which you can still visit today lies near the Gorge power house and once showcased lush tropical plants music and parrots for visitors eventually tourists were able to ride up the rail inclined to diablo lake really be treated to a zoo an even boat cruises by monkey island place J.D,. Ross stocked each summer with monkeys borrowed from the seattle's zoo long lines were developed as visitors waited for one of the trips best-known attractions ... The Gorge Inn dinners were fabulous and they've been fabulous over the years uh... it is well known that you know you couple of helpings of turkey or were chicken or whatever and dessert and uh... that was a big selling point they said that over the years the trip to the Skagit was the best one-day trip on a seattle and i can believe it uh... it was quite thing it was great for the kids.. I can tell you that tourists would return from the Skagit trip to find their cars even been washed many many cars that were parked in the parking lot got cleaned up... He wanted good impression i'd bet J. D. said let's wash those cars it was dirt roads those were dusty times and uh... he wanted to make a good impression too the the city fathers in seattle and those voters that we're paying the bill by nineteen thirty six power was flowing from the diablo powerhouse and seattle city lights at its sights on building ruby damn the biggest of the hydroelectric projects to be built on the Skagit the name of the dam was changed in nineteen thirty nine when the ever charismaticJ.D.Ross unexpectedly passed away ross was so dedicated to the Skagit project he was buried in Newhalem His funeral was huge Ross's crypt is just a short distance from the town center and on it you'll find a eulogy from President Franklin D Roosevelt praising Ross's work building Ross Dam had its own set of problems everything had to be transported up Diablo lake by boat that's why many of the workers were simply housed in the head of the lake The Skagit project was an enormous undertaking just five decades ago hundreds of workers were crossing this very bridge daily to build Ross Dam which was the largest of the hydro-electric projects on the Skagit work finished up in nineteen fifty-one when the third and largest dam on the Skagit went into operation there have been upgrades on the dams since but seattle's energy needs are now far greater than the power of theprogects Skagit dams provide. The Skagit project now supplies just over a third of seattle's total energy supply and there are far fewer seattle city light employees living up here thanks to new technology and automation but the mission remains the same providing the most inexpensive power possible to seattle and his residence I'm Kelly Guenther for seattle city life
Location
A closed basin is a hydrologic basin that has no outlet for the water. Precipitation can only leave through evaporation or seepage. The closed basin of the San Luis Valley covers 2,940 square miles (7,600 km2) between the San Luis Hills in the south, the San Juan Mountains to the west, Poncha Pass to the north and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east.[1] The basin is separated by a hydraulic divide at the southern end from the Rio Grande watershed.[2] It contains the towns of Center, Hooper, Moffat, Mosca and Saguache and the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.[3]
Streams that flow into the basin include irrigation diversions from the Rio Grande, the Carnero, La Garita, and Saguache creeks from the west, San Luis Creek from the north, and the North Crestone and Sand creeks from the east. The water spreads over the floor of the valley and either sinks into the underground aquifer or evaporates. The lowest part of the basin extends from the San Luis lakes north to the Blanca Wildlife Habitat Area.[3] In this area the water table is very close to the surface. Water can evaporate directly from the soil or be taken up by plants such as salt grass, rabbit brush and greasewood, which release the water through evapotranspiration.[1]
Project
The Closed Basin Project was authorized by Congress in 1972 to extract groundwater from the lowest part of the basin in an area that covers 195 square miles (510 km2). Colorado uses the water as part of its contribution to the Rio Grande Compact of 1939, making more water available for irrigation in Colorado. It also helps the United States meet its 1906 treaty obligations with Mexico for supply of water from the Rio Grande.[3] The project, operated and maintained by the Bureau of Reclamation with civil maintenance[clarification needed] by the Rio Grande Water Conservation District,[3] extracts groundwater through a network of shallow wells and delivers it through the 42-mile (68 km) Franklin Eddy Canal to the Rio Grande. Some of the water is delivered to the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge, the Blanca Wildlife Habitat Area and San Luis Lake.[1]
170 salvage wells were built[when?] ranging in depth from 85 to 110 feet (26 to 34 m) and delivering 50 to 1,100 US gallons (190 to 4,160 L; 42 to 916 imp gal) per minute. There are about 115 miles (185 km) of pipeline laterals that carry water to the conveyance channel.[1] The channel has a PVC lining covered with 12 to 16 inches (300 to 410 mm) of aggregate and fill, with a capacity that expands from 45 to 160 cubic feet (1.3 to 4.5 m3) per second from north to south. Trees have been plated along the channel in the areas that are most susceptible to wind erosion, watered through drip irrigation systems.[4] Water flows along the channel at about 1 foot (0.30 m) per second. More than 132 observation wells were used as of 2012[update] to measure water level or pressure from the aquifers, with the data used to ensure the project stays within the authorized drawdown limits.[2] As of 2016, 11 of the wells had been shut down because their output exceeded the limit of 350 parts per million (ppm) for total dissolved solids and therefore cannot be discharged into the Rio Grande under the river compact.[3]
Results
Under the law that authorized the project, water levels in wells that existed outside the project boundary before pumping started must not drop more than 2 feet (0.61 m), and water with more than 350 parts per million total dissolved solids cannot be used. About 60 of the 170 wells in the project are closed down because of the drawdown limits, and eleven because of the water quality requirements. The original estimate was that the project would deliver 100,000 acre-feet (120,000,000 m3) annually. This has never been achieved.[3] From 2000 to 2011, the average annual output was 17,300 acre-feet (21,300,000 m3) annually.[2]
References
Citations
Sources
- Alamosa Field Division Staff (1996). "SAN LUIS VALLEY PROJECT, CLOSED BASIN DIVISION, Colorado" (PDF). Bureau of Reclamation. Retrieved 2012-10-08.[permanent dead link]
- Beck, Ken (12 April 2012). "The Closed Basin Project". Rio Grande Watershed Conservation and Education Initiative. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
- "The Closed Basin Project". Rio Grande Water Conservation District. 27 March 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
This page was last edited on 1 September 2021, at 03:26