Morrow Point Dam
| Morrow Point Dam | |
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Morrow Point Dam
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 Location of Morrow Point Dam in Colorado
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| Location | Cimarron, Gunnison County, Colorado, USA |
| Coordinates | 38°27′07.25″N 107°32′17″W / 38.4520139°N 107.53806°WCoordinates: 38°27′07.25″N 107°32′17″W / 38.4520139°N 107.53806°W |
| Construction began | 1963 |
| Opening date | 1968 |
| Operator(s) | U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Concrete thin arch |
| Impounds | Gunnison River |
| Height | 468 feet (143 m) |
| Length | 724 feet (221 m) |
| Width (crest) | 12 feet (3.7 m) |
| Width (base) | 52 feet (16 m) |
| Dam volume | 365,180 cu yd (279,200 m3) |
| Spillway type | Four-orifice free-fall in center of dam face, fixed-wheel gates |
| Spillway capacity | 41,000 cu ft/s (1,200 m3/s) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Morrow Point Reservoir |
| Total capacity | 117,190 acre feet (0.14455 km3) |
| Catchment area | 3,675 sq mi (9,520 km2) |
| Surface area | 817 acres (331 ha) |
| Power station | |
| Hydraulic head | 413 ft (126 m) |
| Turbines | 2 x 86.667 MW turbines |
| Installed capacity | 173.3 MW |
| Annual generation | 269,193,371 KWh |
Morrow Point Dam is a 468-foot-tall (143 m) concrete double-arch dam on the Gunnison River located in Colorado, the first dam of its type built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Located in the upper Black Canyon of the Gunnison, it creates Morrow Point Reservoir, and is within the National Park Service-operated Curecanti National Recreation Area. The dam is between the Blue Mesa Dam (upstream) and the Crystal Dam (downstream). Morrow Point Dam and reservoir are part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Wayne N. Aspinall Unit of the Colorado River Storage Project, which retains the waters of the Colorado River and its tributaries for agricultural and municipal use in the American Southwest. The dam's primary purpose is hydroelectric power generation.
The dam, powerplant and reservoir are contained in pre-Cambrian metamorphic rocks, primarily micaceous quartzite, quartz-mica, mica and biotite schists, with granitic veining. The dam site is in a narrow canyon about 200 feet (61 m) wide at the river and 550 feet (170 m) wide at the top. The spillway discharge falls 350 feet (110 m) into a stilling basin whose waters are retained by a weir below the dam. Intake structures near the south abutment feed two 18 feet (5.5 m) diameter penstock tunnels with 13.5 feet (4.1 m) steel linings leading to the powerplant. A streamflow of 100 cubic feet per second (2.8 m3/s) is maintained at all times, equivalent to 200 acre feet (0.00025 km3) per day.
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