Ad
Featured
Four things to know about New Mexico dams
El Vado Lake has been drained to a very low level to allow a restoration project on the 90-year-old structure. Bureau of Reclamation announced the plan that had been implemented to restore the dam will not work and a new approach has to be taken.
Published
Modified
Here are four facts about New Mexico’s dams:
1. There are more than 600 dams in New Mexico.
According to the Dam Safety Bureau website, nearly 300 of those dams are under the jurisdiction of the state engineer.
The state engineer has jurisdiction of dams that are at least 25 feet tall and exceed 15 acre-feet of storage or exceed 50 acre-feet of storage and 6 feet in height. An acre-foot is the amount of water that would cover one acre to a depth of one foot.
2. El Vado Dam was built in the 1930s.
El Vado Dam was built in 1935 and rehabilitated in the 1950s. El Vado is one of the few reservoirs in New Mexico storing native Rio Grande water that was built after 1929.
3. Elephant Butte was the second dam on the Rio Grande.
The Elephant Butte Dam near Truth or Consequences was the second dam built to impound the Rio Grande. The Elephant Butte Dam was completed in 1916 and is responsible for New Mexico’s largest reservoir: Elephant Butte.
The first dam to impound the Rio Grande is the Rio Grande Dam in Colorado, which was completed in 1914.
4. Cochiti Dam disrupted agricultural lands.
Ad
The construction of the Cochiti Dam and Cochiti Lake from 1965 to 1975 had a profound impact on the Cochiti Pueblo, according to a 2007 paper by Regis Pecos published in Natural Resources Journal.
The lake “devastated nearly all of the available agricultural lands,” and desecrated places of worship.
— Cathy Cook
