Crystal Dam
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| Crystal Dam | |
|---|---|
 Crystal Dam with overflowing spillway | |
  Location of Crystal Dam in Colorado | |
| Location | Cimarron, Gunnison County, Colorado, USA |
| Coordinates | 38°30′38.48″N 107°37′30.60″W / 38.5106889°N 107.6251667°W |
| Construction began | 1972 |
| Opening date | 1977 |
| Operator(s) | U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Concrete thin arch |
| Impounds | Gunnison River |
| Height | 323 feet (98 m) |
| Length | 620 feet (190 m) |
| Width (crest) | 10 feet (3.0 m) |
| Width (base) | 29 feet (8.8 m) |
| Dam volume | 154,400 cu yd (118,000 m3) |
| Spillway type | Ungated ogee-crest to plunge pool |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Crystal Reservoir |
| Total capacity | 26,000 acre-feet (0.032 km3) |
| Catchment area | 3,970 sq mi (10,300 km2) |
| Surface area | 301 acres (122 ha) |
| Power Station | |
| Hydraulic head | 209 ft (64 m) |
| Turbines | 1 x 31.57 MW Francis turbine |
| Installed capacity | 31.5 MW |
| Annual generation | 137,950,098 KWh |
Crystal Dam is a 323-foot-tall (98 m), double-curvature, concrete, thin arch dam located 6 miles downstream from Morrow Point Dam on the Gunnison River in Colorado, United States. Crystal Dam is the newest of the three dams in Curecanti National Recreation Area; construction on the dam was finished in 1976. The dam impounds Crystal Reservoir. Crystal 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 Gunnison River and its tributaries for agricultural and municipal use in the American Southwest.[1][2] The dam's primary purpose is hydroelectric power generation.[3]
Crystal Dam, like the higher Morrow Point Dam farther upstream, is a thin-shell arch dam, primarily planned to generate hydroelectric power. Unlike its upstream companions, excess water spills over the top of the dam through a notched-out, ungated spillway that can create a 227-foot (69 m) waterfall in times of overflow. Under normal conditions the river flows through an 11.5 feet (3.5 m) diameter penstock to the 28 MW turbine. The dam is deep within the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in pre-Cambrian metamorphic rock.[4]
