The Upper Tisa Valley. Preparatory proposal for Ramsay

The Strâmturi or Frizia dam and reservoir was built 10 km to the north of Baia
Mare, in the catchment of the Lăpuş, on the Frizia Creek between the years 1960 and
1964. The catchment above the dam site is 130 km 2 large, to which 82 km 2 must be
added from the catchment of the Runcu Creek, a tributary of the Mara (which belongs
via the Iza to the Tisa stream network). The reservoir serves three purposes, viz., water
supply to Baia Mare, power generation and the attenuation of flood waves. The dam
proper is 150 m long, but on the right hand side the local rock is concrete lined over 48
m length, so that the dam is actually 198.4 m long. The greatest height is 51.5 m. At
normal retention level the water surface is 3 km long, 0.5 km wide and 113 ha large.
The total storage space is 17.53 million m 3 , or which 0.93 million m 3 are used for
flood control purposes. In emergency situations up to 300 m 3 /s can be released. The
rated discharge of the 4.2 MW Kaplan turbine is 14.5 m 3 /s.
Immediately (300 m) downstream of the Strâmturi dam is the 14.5 m high, r.c.
concrete lined Berdu gravity dam, the reservoir behind which has a maximum capacity
of 133 000 m 3 (at normal retention level 120 000 m 3 ). Mountain water of high quality
is supplied from the reservoir to Baia Mare town over a 5.6 km long pipeline.
The Someşul Mic hydropower scheme with its 340 million m 3 of reservoir
capacity has the greatest impact on the river regime. The normal annual runoff is 407
million m 3 so that theoretically, 84% of the annual runoff could be stored in the
reservoirs.
328
Table 1. The main data of the major reservoirs
The reservoirs have changed considerable the flow regime of the Someşul Mic,
in that the monthly mean flows during the late summer later winter low water period
increased (4-82%), while the spring high flows decreased by 8 to 66%. The change in