WSP09398

• File Number: 8507
• Description: Rio Grande Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Rio Grande
• Date: 7/1/1997
• Title: Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin part 3
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Physical Structures That Control the Upper Rio Grande

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Elephant Butte Reservoir and limiting the amount of vegetation with access
to the water. The reductions in losses increased New Mexico's ability to
satisfy its Compact obligations to Texas and helped the U.S. to meet its
treaty obligations to Mexico, without taking actions to restrict water use
upstream.

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In 1981, the LFCC went out of operation as Elephant Butte Reservoir filled
and inundated the lower reaches of the LFCC. The channel subsequently
operated for a short time, but it became disabled in 1985 due to the
deposition of sediment in the low-flow channel and the headwaters area of
Elephant Butte Reservoir. Currently, the LFCC is operated to empty into
the Rio Grande floodway through an outfall constructed at a point about nine
miles downstream from the San Acacia diversion dam. Both the BuRec and
the CoE have undertaken studies to evaluate the options regarding the
future of the LFCC. The BuRec is investigating the feasibility of pumping
water from the LFCC into the floodway at a point or points downstream.

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San Juan-Chama Transmountain Diversion

In 1962, Congress authorized the diversion of Colorado River Basin water
into the Rio Chama, a tributary to the Rio Grande. The project, operated by
the BuRec, diverts three streams in the headwaters of the San Juan River
through tunnels in the Continental Divide into Heron Reservoir, located on
Willow Creek, a tributary to the Rio Chama. Heron Reservoir has a capacity
of 400,000 af and it cannot store any water that is native to the Rio Chama.
The project is authorized to divert approximately 110,000 aflyr. The yield of
the project to water users in the Basin after reservoir evaporation and
conveyance losses is 94,000 aflyr. Most of the water is contracted for by cities
along or near the Rio Grande, with Albuquerque contracting for
approximately 50 percent.

EI Vado Reservoir

El Vado Reservoir, constructed by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy
District (MRGCD) without federal funds, was completed in 1935. The
BuRec, however, assumed responsibility for operating El Vado and MRGCD's
other facilities in 1956, after the district encountered severe financial
difficulties.

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