WSP08574

• File Number: 8141.100
• Description: Fryingpan-Arkansas Project - Project Description
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Date: 1/1/1969
• Author: US DoI BoR
• Title: Flood Control Fryingpan-Arkansas Project Eastern Slope Features
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Project Overview

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River drainage. The project would furnish ~torage for irrigation, mu-
nicipal and industrial water supply and floqd control in addition to
providing a valuable recreation facility. ~torage allocations include
264,000 acre-feet of conservation storage of which 30,000 acre-feet is
dead and inactive storage, and 93,000 acre-feet of flood control storage.

EXISTING AND AUTHORIZED IMPROVEMENTS

4. EXISTING FLOOD PROTECTIVE WORKS.- !John Martin Pam was the
first improvement built by the Corps of Eng~neers, for the development
of the water resources of the Arkansas Rivef Basin in Colorado. The
project was completed and placed in operatiqn in 1948. It has the
largest'storage capacityofcany reservoir irttheState. The dam which
is a concrete gravity overflow structure flanked by earth dikes, spans
the,Arkansas River about 58 miles upstream from the Colorado-Kansas
State line and about 18 miles below Las Anilllas. The reservoir extends
14.8 miles ,up the valley and covers about lr,881 acres at maximum pool
level. The total reservoir storage capacity at maximum pool elevation
is 631,121 acre-feet, based on estimated se4iment depletion since the
latest survey in 1966. About 267,177 acre-feet of this capacity is
reserved for flood control and the remainin~ 363,945 acre-feet is
utilized for storage of irrigation water and recreation. The water
stored in the reservoir for irrigation purposes is released in accord-
ance with the terms of the Arkansas River Compact and at the request of
the Administration.

5. Other improvements constructed by the Corps of Engineers in the
Arkansas River Basin include the Templeton Gap Ploodwayat Colorado
Springs, the Pueblo Ploodway Levee Extensio~'at Pueblo, and the Pinon
Canyon Dam at Trinidad. All of these improvements were constructed as
single-purpose flood control projects. ,The !Templeton Gap Ploodway pro- '
tects an urban area in the northeast section of Colorado Springs from
runoff which originates on a bowl-shapeddr~inage area of about 8 square
miles and concentrates in the main channel Qf Templeton Gap where the
rapid fall produces high velocities.' Thefloodway, which was completed
in 1948, intercepts and diverts these flows !via a channel to Monument
Creek, a tributary to Pountain Creek. The Pueblo Ploodway Levee Ex~
tension is an addition to the lower end of the Pueblo Floodway which
was constructed by local interests on the Atkansas River through the
city of Pueblo shortly after the disastrous; flood of 1921. The purpose
of the extension is to prevent inundation of an,urban area of important
industrial and transportation facilities by backwater from floods on
the Arkansas River. The Pinon Canyon Dam, which was completed in 1954,
protects a highly developed urban area of aT;lout 40 acres in the north-
western and central sections of Trinidad fr6m floods originating on the
precipitous Pinon Canyon Arroyo. The drain*ge area of the watershed is
about 1.4 square miles. The project consists of an earth dam which
creates a reservoir with a storage capacity!of 406 acre-feet.

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