WSP08618

• File Number: 8111.600
• Description: ARCA Annual Reports
• Basin: Arkansas
• Date: 12/14/1976
• Author: ARCA
• Title: Twenty-Eighth Annual Report Arkansas River Compact Administration for the Year 1976
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Annual Report

upstream from the Colorado-Kansas stateline and 18 miles upstream
from the city oi'Lamar, Colorado. Construction of the project began in
tbe fall of 1939, but work was suspended by World War II from the
spring of 1943 to the spring of 1946. The project was completed in
October 1948 at a cost of about $15 million. The War Department Civil
Appropriation Act of June 24, 1940, changed the name of tbe project
from Caddoa Reservoir Project to John Martin Reservoir Project, in
honor of the late Congressman John A. Marlin of Colorado. It is
operated by the United States Army Engineer District. Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Mr. Russell Smith has been the resident superintendent of
the project since October, 1976.
The John Martin Reservoir Project is part of the comprehensive
plan for the control of floods and the development of the water
resources of the entire Arkansas River basin. The reservoir provides
Z70,375 acre-feet of storage capacity for flood control. It protects the
fertile Arkansas River Valley below the dam from floods originating in
the 18,915 square miles of the Arkansas River basin above the dam. It
provides 350,951 acre.feet of storage space for conservation and
recreation. John Martin Reservoir supplies water to the irrigated lands
below the dam as far as Garden City, Kansas. The top of the con-
servation pool is 3.851 feet above mean sea level, which provides
350.951 acre-feet of storage for irrigation. The release of stored flood
waters in excess of the conservation and recreation pools "and above
elevation 3,851 feet is planned so that, when combined with flows
originating downstream from the dam, the capacity of the channel will
not be exceeded. Upon request of the Arkansas River Compact
Administration, irrigation water ror downstream water users is
released through the oullet works in the base of the dam. Downstream
flood damages prevented by John Martin Dam already exceed the cost
of the project. Benefits have already passed the $92 million mark.
Recreation and favorable fish and wildlife habitats are derived from
this project. With reservoir lands open to all, there are many attractive
public use areas ror outdoor recreation, water sports, rishing and
boating, or just relaxed living. During construction some embankment
material was obtained from a 75-acre tract or land immediately
downstream of tbe dam. This excavated area, averaging 12 feet deep.
filled with water and formed Lake Hasty, the center of year-round
recreation.
John Martin Dam consists or a concrete gravity structure 1,644 reet
long and 120 feet high, and an earthfill structure 2,600 feet long. The
concrete gravity structure contains a gated spillway provided willi
sixteen 30 feet by 64 feet tainter gates with their operating machinery.
There are earthen wing dams on either side or the main dam. The
north wing dam is 3.880 feet long, connecting to the earthfill structure
of the main dam at the north abutment. The south wing dam is 5,807
feel long and connects 10 the south end of the concrele structure of the
main dam. A bitwninous-surfaced roadway, 21 reet wide, extends along
the crest of the north wing dam, main dam, and south wing dam. The
overall length of the structure is 2.6 miles. Detailed project data are
shown below.
DAM
Total length. feet.
Maximum height above streambed, feet. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. .
Width of roadway on dam. feet.

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13,945
118
21