HRC or member-contributedThe project, yet to be constructed but licensed in Jan 2012, would be located on the Gibson dam, owned by the Bureau of Reclamation and located inside the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Lewis and Clark and Teton Counties in Montana.
The Gibson dam and reservoir is an existing irrigation storage facility in northwestern Montana, approximately 19 miles northwest of Augusta, MT and 70 miles west of Great Falls, MT. Gibson dam is part of Reclamation’s Sun River Irrigation Project. Irrigation is the only federally authorized purpose for the dam. The applicant proposes to construct new penstocks, a powerhouse, a maintenance building, a transmission line, a step-up substation, and other appurtenant facilities.
The Sun River begins in the mountains at the confluence of the North and South Fork of the Sun River on the eastern edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. From its origin, the river flows for a little over five miles before the river flows through two dams, the Gibson Dam and the Sun River Dam located three miles further downstream.
