Dede Ranzenberg would be right if the environment of the Grand Valley and the electrical power industry were the same today as it was in the 1970s but much has changed in the last 20 plus years since Reclamation and I formulated the Dominquez Reservoir project. Dede’s misconception is that things have not changed. As I told the Dominquez supporters in the early 2000s, Dominquez was planned during the oil shale boom days when Rifle to Parachute expected a population of 250,000 people before the turn of the century. As we all know a debacle occurred and this never happened. The Dominquez pump-back storage component was designed by me and other Reclamation employees to satisfy a power peaking requirement for this big projected population. After the collapse of oil shale in 1985, Reclamation dropped Dominquez and commenced transferring all planners from the Grand Junction office to either Washington DC or Denver. Because of previous international experience the Washington office offered me a job in Brazil.

After many overseas stints I returned to Grand Junction in 1999 from my last job in Brazil. I was asked by those who knew I was the Dominquez planner to come to a meeting of Dominquez supporters. At the meeting, I told the group that in today’s huge interconnected electric grids that stretch across the western US and load management practices that there is no such things as cheap “dump power” that was anticipated to pump water up the face of Dominguez Canyon to a forbay that would release water during the day to meet peak daily needs. That cheap night time power is no longer available. Load management and inter-connected power system have eliminated the huge daily peaks experienced during the 60s and 70s. In fact the peaking plant designed for Dominquez would use more kilowatts hours than it would generate. Simply stated the Dominquez is fundamentally flawed and would not likely achieve a benefit cost ratio above unity – Dominquez would probably not even pay for the 200 million dollar required Railroad relocation much less pay any of the other infrastructure costs. In addition it would cause significant negative environmental impacts. The dam and its reservoir would further jeopardize endangered fish, encroach on the wilderness area, take land out of production, impact petroglyps and be a great disappointment to thousands of people who signed support petitions for a premiere recreation lake but discovered it would be essentially inaccessible around 80% of its shore line – most of it with steep wall canyons.

After stating many of these to the unsuspecting crowd, I said but let me not just drop you there but suggest an alternative that may avoid all these harmful attributes and in fact enhance the environment of our two precious Rivers - the Gunnison and the Colorado.

Then I said, let me suggest a lake that would have unlimited shore access, essentially no negative environmental impacts, no major infrastructure relocations, no highways, railroads and even no fences. Furthermore, most of the land is already publicly owned. The Grand Valley Lake (GVL) site, as it became known, would hold about 200,000 acre-feet of water, sufficient municipal water for about 600,000 people and have a surface area of about 1500- to 2000 acres for potential “recreators,” about 3 to 4 time more useable shore access than Dominquez. Nay “sayers” said it could not be done without a great deal of pumping so like a true planner I went to work and prepared two preliminary design models, one for the Lake and one for a.50-60 mile canal to ensure the lake would be effective in a drought like the one we experienced in 2000 to 2005.

The Lake and gravity canal concept eliminated obligating future generations to the use of saline and heavy mineral laden waters that would mix with the Dominquez Reservoir or any other future downstream diversions. The GVL would essentially capture the high quality releases of Blue Mesa Reservoir before they mixed with the poor return flows of the Uncompahgre River. Not only would the Grand Valley Lake eliminate the negative aspect of the Dominquez but it would literally solve nagging problems, namely, the endangered fish issue of the 15-mile reach while freeing up over 300,000 acre-feet of water on the Colorado River for all sorts of future beneficial uses. It would eliminate the need for several historical structures on the Colorado that impede fish movement up and down the Colorado River from the Divide to the State line. And even more, if Redlands Water and Power Company (RWPC) were to participate, we could eliminate all structures on the Gunnison River from its mouth to the confluence with the Uncompahgre River and most likely eliminate the endangered fish problem on the Gunnison River. RWPC could, as would also Orchard Mesa Irrigation District, receive all their water through gravity flow systems from the Grand Valley Lake and its proposed pipeline distribution systems. This would eliminate both RWPC’s and OMID’s pumping requirements and would significantly increase hydroelectric power generation for both entities. The biggest advantage over the Dominquez Reservoir would be the benefit to cost ratio. The ratio could be a ridiculous 2:1 to a 6:1, meaning for every dollar spent one would receive $2 to $6 in return. This is unheard of in water project planning of this magnitude.

I have spend my entire career planning water projects for government entities around the world from multi-billion projects on the Mekong and Nile rivers, to multi- million dollar projects in Somalia, Brazil, Bolivia and Vietnam. Not to speak of about every water project planned in western Colorado from the Savory Pot Hook, Yellow Jacket, Juniper in the Northwest to the Animas-LaPlata, Dolores and the San Miguel in the Southwest to mention only a few. What to do?
Contact your State and Federal representative and let them know the potentials of this project.
DONALD E. CLAY
Professional Water Resources Planning Enginee
Grand Junction

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