WSP09626

• File Number: 8111.600
• Description: ARCA Annual Reports
• Basin: Arkansas
• Date: 12/12/1972
• Author: ARCA
• Title: Twenty-Fourth Annual Report Arkansas River Compact Administration for the Year 1972
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Annual Report

Pursuant to provisions of the Compact (Article V 111-E(3))
Jnd of the By-Laws of the Administration (Article VII (5)),
the receipts and disbursements of the Administration
during the compact year have been audited, and the report
of the JudillS Ilereto attached JS Append:x "A". I

6. Facts Jbout John Martin Project

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The John Marlin Reservoir Project was built by the Corps of
Engineers, United StJtes Army. The ploject was authorized by congress
in the Flood Control Act of June 22, 1936, when the federal
lesponsibility for flood control throughout the country was assigned to
the Corps of Engineers. It is locJted on the ArkLlnsas River, 58 miles
upstleam from the Colorado-Kansas stateline and 18 miles upstream
from the city of Lamar, Colorado. Construction of the project began in
the fall ot 1939, but work was suspended by World War II from the
Spfillg of 1943 to ttle spling of 1946. The project was completed in
October 1948 at a cost of Jbout $15 million. The War Department Civil
Appropriation Act of June 24,1940, changed the nJme of the project
ffom CaddoJ Reservoir Proiect to John Martin Reservoir Project, in
honor of the late Congressm<ln John A. Martin of Colorado. It is
operated by tile United States Army Engineer District, Albuquerque,
New MeJ((co. Mr. \,\'illiJm L. Lindsey has been the resident
superintendent of the project since Apnl I, 1968.
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 Ark<lnSJs River basin. The reservoir provides
261,000 aCle-feet of storage cap<lcity 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 bJsin above the dam. It
provides 357,600 acr e-feet of storage spiKe for conservation and
recreation. John Martin Reservoir supplies water to the irrigated lands
below the d<lm as far as G<lrden City, KansJs. The top of the
conservation pool is 3.851 feet above mean sea level, which provides
347.600 acre-feet of storage for irrigJlion. (Congress has authorized use
of an additional 10,000 acre-feet of flood control storage space for
recreation purposes. This was intended to allow the establishment of a
10,000 acre-toot permanent recre<ltion pool, but this has not been done
to date.) The release of. stored flood W<lter<; 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 Ule dam. the c<lpacity of the channel will not be exceeded. Upon
request of the Arkansas River Compact Administration, irrigation water
for downstream water users is rele<lsed through the outlet 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 for outdoor recreation, w<lter sports, fishing
and boating. or just relaxed living. (Demand for irrigation water often
results in emptying the conservation pool, limiting the recreJtional uses
of the reservoir _) During construction some embankment material was
obtJlned from a 75-acre tract of land immediately downstream of the
darll. This excavated area, Jver<lglng 12 feet deep. filled with water and
formed Lake Hasty, the center of year-round recreation.
John Martin Dam consists of a concrete gravity structure 1,644
feet long and 120 feet high, and an earthfill structure 2,600 feet long_
The concrete gravity structure contains a gated spillwJY provided with
sixteen 30 feet by 64 feet tainter gates with their operating machinery_

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