FLOOD04360

• County: Bent
• Community: Las Animas
• Stream Name: Arkansas River
• Basin: Arkansas
• Title: Interim Report on Review Survey for Flood Control
• Date: 8/1/1963
• Prepared For: Las Animas
• Prepared By: US Army Corps of Engineers
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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downstream from the dam. This lake, known as Lake Hasty, has a surface
area of approximately 75 acres and a maximum depth of 12 feet. It has
proved very popular for sport fishing since the fishery resources of
the Arkansas River are inadequate to meet the local demand.

26. Other improvements constructed by the Corps of Engineers in
the Arkansas River Basin include the Templeton Gap Floodway at Colorado
Springs, the Pueblo Floodway Levee Extension at Pueblo, and the Finon
Canyon Dam at Trinidad. AI I of these improvements were constructed as
single-purpose flood control projects. The Templeton Gap Floodway
protects an urban area in the northeast section of Colorado Springs
from runoff which originates on a bowl-shaped drainage area of about
8 square mi les and concentrates in the main channel of Templeton Gap
where the rapid fal I produces high velocities. The floodway, which
was completed in 1948, intercepts and diverts these flows via a paved
channel to Monument Creek, a tributary to Fountain Creek. The Pueblo
Floodway Levee Extension is an addition to the lower end of the Pueblo
Floodway which was constructed by local interests on the Arkansas 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 faci I ities by backwater from
floods on the Arkansas River. The Pifton Canyon Dam, which was completed
in 1954, protects a highly developed urban area of about 40 acres in the
northwestern and central sections of Trinidad from floods originating
on the precipitous Pifton Canyon Arroyo which drains a watershed area
of about 1.4 square mi les. The project consists of an earth dam which
creates a reservoir with a storage capacity of 406 acre-feet.

27. In addition to the above-described major improvements, the
Corps of Engineers has constructed 22 emergency flood control projects
in the Arkansas River Basin in Colorado, as authorized under special
continuing authorities(I). These consist of snagging and channel
clearing, emergency bank protection, emergency repairs to existing
flood control works, and flood fighting operations. Most of the work
has been done in or near cities and towns, inciuding Las Animas. Fed-
eral costs have varied from about $4,000 to about $75,000. Emergency
work performed at Las Animas is described briefly in the fol lowing
paragraphs and the locations are shown on plate 2.

28. Emergency channel repairs to protect U.S. Highway 50 bridge
which crosses the Arkansas River immediately north of the city were
completed by the Corps of Engineers in 1950. This work, authorized
in accordance with Section 12 of the 1944 Flood Control Act, consisted
of stabi lizing about 120 feet of river bank adjacent to the north
abutment of the bridge. The cost to the Federal Government was $7,500.

(I) Special continuing authorities are those items of legislation
pertaining to urgently needed flood control work wherein the authority
and responsibi I ity for the selection and funding are delegated to the
Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Engineers.

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