Elephant Butte Dam

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Elephant Butte Dam
Elephant butte dike.jpg
The dam and reservoir at highstand
CountryUnited States
Location Elephant Butte, New Mexico
Coordinates 33°09′14″N107°11′32″W / 33.153969°N 107.192113°W / 33.153969; -107.192113
StatusIn use
Construction began1911
Opening date1916
Owner(s) U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Dam and spillways
Type of dam Gravity
Impounds Rio Grande
Height301 ft (92 m)
Length1,674 ft (510 m)
Width (crest)18 ft (5 m)
Width (base)228 ft (69 m)
Dam volume618,785 cu yd (473,095 m3)
Spillway typeConcrete chute
Reservoir
CreatesElephant Butte Lake
Total capacity2,065,010 acre⋅ft (2.547152329×109 m3)
Catchment area 28,900 sq mi (75,000 km2)
Surface area36,500 acres (14,800 ha)
Power Station
Hydraulic head 140 ft (43 m) (rated)
Turbines 1 x Francis turbine
Installed capacity 27.95 MW
Annual generation 38,449,061 kWh
Elephant Butte Dam
Elephant Butte Dam under construction 1914.JPG
The spillway is in the lower left corner of the picture and the power plant is located at the base of the opposite side of the dam.
USA New Mexico location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Elephant Butte, New Mexico
Area45 acres (18 ha)
Built1910 (1910)
ArchitectLouis C. Hill
Architectural style Gravity-type
NRHP reference No. 79001556 [1]
NMSRCP No. 617
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 9, 1979
Designated NMSRCPMarch 20, 1978

Elephant Butte Dam or Elephant Butte Dike, originally Engle Dam, [2] is a concrete gravity dam on the Rio Grande near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The dam impounds Elephant Butte Reservoir, which is used mainly for agriculture but also provides for recreation, hydroelectricity, and flood and sediment control. The construction of the dam has reduced the flow of the Rio Grande to a small stream for most of the year, with water being released only during the summer irrigation season or during times of exceptionally heavy snow melt.

Contents

Etymology

Elephant Butte is an exposed volcanic plug in Sierra County, New Mexico. The sides of the volcano have eroded away and left only the solidified butte-shaped core. It is now an island in the lake except at low-water levels, when it is connected to land by an isthmus. The butte was said to have the shape of an elephant lying on its side, and its name has been applied to the area since before the dam's construction. The nearby city of Elephant Butte was named for the rock formation.

The original name of the dam was Engle Dam, after the nearby railroad stop at Engle, New Mexico. The stop was named "Engle" after the construction engineer R.L. Engle and was later renamed to "Engel" by the Santa Fe Railroad after their company's vice president, Edward Engel. Locals complained to Congress about the name change but were unsuccessful in having the name reverted. Today, the stop bears its original name, "Engle."

Another name proposed for the dam and used in at least one publication was "Woodrow Wilson Dam," after the former U.S. president. [2]

The proposed name for the reservoir was "Lake B.M. Hall," after Bureau of Reclamation engineer Benjamin Mortimer Hall, who championed the project. [3]

Dam site, Elephant Butte (postcard, circa 1916-1924) Dam site at Elephant Butte, on Rio Grande, near El Paso Texas.jpg
Dam site, Elephant Butte (postcard, circa 1916-1924)

History

Drought and floods

Like for many other rivers of the American Southwest, runoff in the Rio Grande basin is limited and varies widely from year to year and alternates between devastating droughts and destructive floods. [4] In the 1880s, farmers in the region began to complain that they were not receiving a fair appropriation of river water. By the 1890s, water use in the upper basin was so great that the river's flow near El Paso, Texas, had been reduced to "a trickle in dry summers." [2]

To resolve those problems, plans were drafted up for a large storage dam at Elephant Butte, about 130 miles (210 km) downstream of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first to propose a dam for the area were Peter E. Kern, E.V. Berrien, John Campbell, R.M. Loomis and Edward Roberts. [5] They had camped in the area where the dam is now; although Kern encouraged the others to consider building a dam there, [6] its construction was delayed by legal battles relating to the final site and to water rights. [2]

Dam at Elephant Butte, on Rio Grande, near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (postcard, circa 1916) Dam at Elephant Butte, on Rio Grande, near El Paso Texas.jpg
Dam at Elephant Butte, on Rio Grande, near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (postcard, circa 1916)

A site lower far downriver, at the El Paso narrows (the former site of the ASARCO plant at Smeltertown), was considered for a dam, but it would have flooded much of the lower Mesilla Valley and interfered with railway and other transportation. The site at Elephant Butte was chosen for those reasons and for its mountainous location, which created a natural basin for a reservoir. The river at the site was "too thin to plow, too thick to drink." [3] The proposed dam featured in the 1906 Boundary Waters Convention between the United States and Mexico, which also specified how much water should be delivered to Mexico after the dam's completion. [7]

A private dam project backed by British investors was in the works in 1894 just upstream from the dam site and also by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It was eventually blocked by the U.S. Secretary of State "on basis of a technicality that the Rio Grande was arguably a navigable river and permission from the War Department was also needed." Although delayed by legal issues, the injunction against building the dam was lifted in 1897. However, the project failed to proceed, and the investors lost their rights to build the private dam in 1903. [8]

The Victorio Land and Cattle Co. owned about three fourths of the site and in 1909 demanded the government pay $17.83 per acre, instead of the substantially lower offer of $1.83 per acre. A lengthy court battle ensued, and the US government condemned 24,730 acres of the company's land and settled on a price of $6.66 per acre for the remaining 30,000 acres. [3]

Construction

The U.S. Congress passed the Newlands Reclamation Act in 1902, authorizing the Rio Grande Project to provide power and irrigation to south-central New Mexico and western Texas as a Bureau of Reclamation undertaking. For the next two years, surveyors and engineers undertook a comprehensive feasibility study for the project's dams and reservoirs. Construction of the dam was authorized on February 25, 1905, and began in 1911. [9]

To accommodate the dam's construction, crews built and improved roads and constructed a Bureau of Reclamation office, water tanks, worker camps, a machine shop, a power plant, and a hospital. A system of three cables, each having a capacity of 15 tons and a span of 1,400 feet (430 m), was suspended across the canyon over the site.

At its peak, the camps housed around 3,500 workers. Two worker camps housed them. The "Upper Camp" was built upstream and housed affluential and skilled workers, such as supervisors and engineers. The "Lower Camp" was downstream of the site, housed the less influential laborers, and was further segregated by American and Mexican workers living in separate areas of the camp. [2] Upper Camp was inundated by the dam's own reservoir, but although it was on dry land, Lower Camp has no trace remaining.

Photograph of the newly finished dam in 1916. The reservoir is partially filled. The characteristic white mineral stains on the hills are absent, as they were created during the 1942 highstand. Elephant Butte Dam LCCN2008676677.tif
Photograph of the newly finished dam in 1916. The reservoir is partially filled. The characteristic white mineral stains on the hills are absent, as they were created during the 1942 highstand.

During its construction, the dam was the largest irrigation dam ever built except for the Aswan Dam, in Egypt, and impounded the world's largest artificial lake. [2] [10] It was expected that the dam would become the property of the local settlers once a water tax had reimbursed the government for the cost of construction.

Elephant Butte Dam was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1976. [11] The dam and Bureau of Reclamation office were listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1979. [1] [12] Historic resources from the era of construction of the dam, as well as from the New Deal era development of power generation and recreation facilities in the area, were recognized in the 1997 listing of a 2,443 acres (9.89 km2) area on the National Register as the Elephant Butte Historic District. The historic district listing includes the dam and surrounding historic structures. [13]

Characteristics

Elephant Butte Dam is 301 feet (91.7 m) high, 1,674 feet (510.2 m) long including the spillway and is made from 618,785 cubic yards (473,095 m³) of concrete. [9] The width at the top of the dam is 18 feet (5.5 m) and 228 feet (69.5 m) at the base. [14]

Elephant Butte Powerplant Elephant Butte Power Plant.jpg
Elephant Butte Powerplant

The reservoir has a capacity of 2,065,010 acre-feet (2.54715×109 m3) of water [9] and controls the runoff from 28,900 square miles (74,850 km²). [14] It provides irrigation to 178,000 acres (720 km²) of land. The dam also contains a 28 MW hydroelectric powerplant. The current turbine was installed in 1940 and generates 38,449,061 kWh per year (as of 2005). [9] The crest elevation is 4390 ft (1338 m). [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rio Grande</span> Major river forming part of the US–Mexico border

The Rio Grande in the United States or the Río Bravo in Mexico is one of the principal rivers in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio Grande is 1,896 miles (3,051 km), making it the 4th longest river in the United States and in North America by main stem. It originates in south-central Colorado, in the United States, and flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Rio Grande drainage basin (watershed) has an area of 182,200 square miles (472,000 km2); however, the endorheic basins that are adjacent to and within the greater drainage basin of the Rio Grande increase the total drainage-basin area to 336,000 square miles (870,000 km2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pecos River</span> River in New Mexico and Texas, United States

The Pecos River originates in north-central New Mexico and flows into Texas, emptying into the Rio Grande. Its headwaters are on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County north of Pecos, New Mexico, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet (3,700 m). The river flows for 926 miles (1,490 km) before reaching the Rio Grande near Del Rio. Its drainage basin encompasses about 44,300 square miles (115,000 km2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elephant Butte Reservoir</span> Reservoir on the Rio Grande in New Mexico, United States

Elephant Butte Reservoir is a reservoir on the southern part of the Rio Grande in the U.S. state of New Mexico, 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Truth or Consequences. The reservoir is the 84th largest man-made lake in the United States and the largest in New Mexico by total surface area and peak volume. It is the only place in New Mexico that one can find pelicans perched on or alongside the lake. There are also temporary US Coast Guard bases stationed at Elephant Butte. It is impounded by Elephant Butte Dam and is part of the largest state park in New Mexico, Elephant Butte Lake State Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo Dam</span> Dam in San Juan and Rio Arriba Counties, New Mexico

Navajo Dam is a dam on the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado River, in northwestern New Mexico in the United States. The 402-foot (123 m) high earthen dam is situated in the foothills of the San Juan Mountains about 44 miles (71 km) upstream and east of Farmington, New Mexico. It was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) in the 1960s to provide flood control, irrigation, domestic and industrial water supply, and storage for droughts. A small hydroelectric power plant was added in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elephant Butte Lake State Park</span>

Elephant Butte Lake State Park is a state park of New Mexico, United States, located 7 miles (11 km) north of Truth or Consequences along the shore of Elephant Butte Reservoir in Sierra County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rio Grande Project</span>

The Rio Grande Project is a United States Bureau of Reclamation irrigation, hydroelectricity, flood control, and interbasin water transfer project serving the upper Rio Grande basin in the southwestern United States. The project irrigates 193,000 acres (780 km2) along the river in the states of New Mexico and Texas. Approximately 60 percent of this land is in New Mexico. Some water is also allotted to Mexico to irrigate some 25,000 acres (100 km2) on the south side of the river. The project was authorized in 1905, but its final features were not implemented until the early 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minidoka Project</span>

The Minidoka Project is a series of public works by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to control the flow of the Snake River in Wyoming and Idaho, supplying irrigation water to farmlands in Idaho. One of the oldest Bureau of Reclamation projects in the United States, the project involves a series of dams and canals intended to store, regulate and distribute the waters of the Snake, with electric power generation as a byproduct. The water irrigates more than a million acres (4,000 km²) of otherwise arid land, producing much of Idaho's potato crop. Other crops include alfalfa, fruit and sugar beets. The primary irrigation district lies between Ashton in eastern Idaho and Bliss in the southwestern corner of the state. Five main reservoirs collect water, distributing it through 1,600 miles (2,600 km) of canals and 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of lateral distribution ditches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caballo Dam</span> Dam on the Rio Grande in New Mexico, United States

Caballo Dam is an earthen dam on the Rio Grande about 15 miles (24 km) downstream from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, United States. In conjunction with Elephant Butte Dam, which lies about 25 miles (40 km) upstream, it regulates the discharge of the river in the lower Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. Caballo serves as an afterbay for the Elephant Butte Reservoir, i.e. it stores water released from Elephant Butte for hydroelectricity generation purposes and discharges it in the dry season to provide for irrigation agriculture downstream. The dam is an important part of the Rio Grande Project. A secondary purpose of the dam was to compensate for lost capacity in Elephant Butte Lake due to sedimentation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Vado Dam</span> Dam in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico

El Vado Dam impounds the Rio Chama in the U.S. state of New Mexico, about 105 miles (169 km) north-northwest of New Mexico's largest city, Albuquerque and about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of the capital city of Santa Fe. The earth-filled structure forms El Vado Lake, a storage reservoir for the Middle Rio Grande Project, and has been designated as a New Mexico Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Juan–Chama Project</span> Water management project in New Mexico and Colorado

The San Juan–Chama Project is a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation interbasin water transfer project located in the states of New Mexico and Colorado in the United States. The project consists of a series of tunnels and diversions that take water from the drainage basin of the San Juan River – a tributary of the Colorado River – to supplement water resources in the Rio Grande watershed. The project furnishes water for irrigation and municipal water supply to cities along the Rio Grande including Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District</span>

The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) was formed in 1925 to manage the irrigation systems and control floods in the Albuquerque Basin. It is responsible for the stretch of river from the Cochiti Dam in Sandoval County in the north, through Bernalillo County, Valencia County and Socorro County to the Elephant Butte Reservoir in the south. It manages the Angostura, Isleta and San Acacia diversion dams, which feed an extensive network of irrigation canals and ditches.

The San Acacia Diversion Dam is a structure built in 1934 for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) near to San Acacia, New Mexico, United States. It diverts water from the Rio Grande into irrigation canals.

<i>Rio Grande Silvery Minnow v. Bureau of Reclamation</i> Supreme Court case

Rio Grande Silvery Minnow v. Bureau of Reclamation, called Rio Grande Silvery Minnow v. Keys in its earlier phases, was a case launched in 1999 by a group of environmentalists against the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the United States Army Corps of Engineers alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The case resulted in significant changes to water and river management in the Middle Rio Grande Basin of New Mexico in an effort to reverse the damage that had been done to the habitat of two endangered species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Rio Grande Project</span>

The Middle Rio Grande Project manages water in the Albuquerque Basin of New Mexico, United States. It includes major upgrades and extensions to the irrigation facilities built by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and modifications to the channel of the Rio Grande to control sedimentation and flooding. The bulk of the work was done by the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s, but construction continued into the 1970s and maintenance is ongoing. The project is complementary to the San Juan–Chama Project, which transfers water from the San Juan River in the Colorado River Basin to the Rio Grande. Although distribution of water from the two projects is handled through separate allotments and contracts, there is some sharing of facilities including the river itself. The ecological impact on the river and the riparian zone was the subject of extended litigation after a group of environmentalists filed Rio Grande Silvery Minnow v. Bureau of Reclamation in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heron Dam</span> Dam in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico

Heron Dam is a storage dam Rio Arriba County, in northern New Mexico in the southwestern United States, just north of the El Vado Dam. It is owned and operated by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. The dam is about 9 miles west of the town of Tierra Amarilla.

The Riverside Diversion Dam was a diversion dam on the Rio Grande to the southeast of El Paso, Texas. The dam was owned by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, and diverted water into the Riverside Canal for use in irrigation in the El Paso Valley. The dam became obsolete with completion of a cement-lined canal carrying water from the upstream American Diversion Dam to the head of the canal. It was partially removed in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesilla Diversion Dam</span> Dam in Doña Ana County, New Mexico

The Mesilla Diversion Dam is located in the Rio Grande about 40 miles (64 km) upstream of El Paso, Texas, about 6 miles (9.7 km) to the south of Las Cruces, New Mexico. It diverts water from the river for irrigation in the lower Mesilla Valley. The dam is owned by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, which built it, and is operated by the Elephant Butte Irrigation District.

The Elephant Butte Irrigation District is a 6,870 acres (27.8 km2) historic district in New Mexico and Texas which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The listing included three contributing buildings and 214 contributing structures, in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, Sierra County, New Mexico and El Paso County, Texas.

The Elephant Butte Historic District, a historic district in the Elephant Butte, New Mexico, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The district included 30 contributing buildings, 10 contributing structures and 34 contributing sites on 2,443 acres (9.89 km2), as well as numerous non-contributing resources.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Briseño, Elaine D. (July 5, 2020). "Elephant Butte looks the part, but a long colorful history is at the center of how the dam got and kept its name". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved February 2, 2021– via abqjournal.com.
  3. 1 2 3 Video. "How'd That Lake Get There? A History of Elephant Butte Dam, the Project That Changed Sierra County Forever". Sierra County Centennial Video Series. Youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  4. ↑ "Rio Grande Running Dry". Off the Kuff. 2003. Retrieved April 10, 2009.
  5. ↑ "Originator of Elephant Butte Project is Here from Alaska". El Paso Herald. January 31, 1910. Retrieved April 29, 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Hamilton, Nancy (November 21, 1974). "Papers, Photos Add to Kern Place Founder's History". El Paso Herald-Post. Retrieved April 27, 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ https://www.ibwc.gov/Files/1906Conv.pdf text of 1906 Boundary Waters Convention
  8. ↑ David A. Phillips Jr. (July 19, 1996). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Elephant Butte Historic District". National Park Service . Retrieved July 4, 2019. With accompanying 29 historic and recent photos
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Elephant Butte Powerplant". Rio Grande Project. Bureau of Reclamation. December 28, 2005. Archived from the original on September 26, 2006. Retrieved October 11, 2006.
  10. ↑ "Great Elephant Butte Dam Approaching Completion". Popular Mechanics Magazine. January 1915. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  11. ↑ "Dedicate Landmark". The Herald. Truth or Consequences, NM. March 31, 1977. p. 1.
  12. ↑ T. Lindsay Baker; William L. Cumiford (January 27, 1978). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Elephant Butte Dam and Reservoir". National Park Service . Retrieved July 5, 2019. With accompanying two photos from 1971
  13. ↑ David A. Phillips Jr. (July 19, 1996). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Elephant Butte Historic District". National Park Service . Retrieved July 4, 2019. With accompanying 29 historic and recent photos
  14. 1 2 "Elephant Butte Dam". Dataweb. Bureau of Reclamation. August 22, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2006. Retrieved October 11, 2006.
  15. ↑ "Elephant Butte Dike". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 2006-05-12.

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