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

,

Section 3 of the River and Harbor Act approved
June 13, 1902, be, and is hereby requested to
review the reports on the Arkansas River and
tributaries contained in House Document 308,
Seventy-fourth Congress, First Session, with a
view to determining whether any modification
should be made therein at this time with respect
to local flood protection along the main stem of
the Arkansas River.

2. In view of the urgent requests of local interests for immedi-
ate consideration of the serious flood problem at and in the vicinity
of Las Animas, Colo., the Chief of Engineers directed this interim
report to be submitted prior to completion of the comprehensive report
which wi I I be submitted in response to the above-cited resolutions.

3. PRIOR REPORTS.- The survey reports referenced in the resolu-
tions quoted above were submitTed in partial compl iance to Congressional
requests enacted in 1924, 1927, and 1928, which tal led for flood control
surveys on al I tributary streams of the Mississippi River System subject
to destructive floods. The report reviewed herein, Part I - Arkansas
River and Minor Tributaries, dated June 10, 1932, was publ ished as
Volume I of House Document No. 308, 74th Congress. Surveys made at
that time found no justification for local flood protection improve-
ments along the Arkansas River in Colorado. However, on the basis of
findings contained in the report, the Congress authorized construction
of the John Martin Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the
Arkansas River about 18 mi les be low Las Animas. The project was com-
pleted in October 1948 for flood control and conservation of irrigation
water.

4. Several other reports have been submitted by the Corps of Engi-
neers regarding the flood and related problems in the Arkansas River
Basin in Colorado; however, they are not pertinent to the flood problem
at Las Animas. These reports have been publ ished as fol lows:

a. House Document No. 186, 78th Congress, Fountaine Que
Soui I Ie (Fountain) River and its Tributaries, Colorado. In accordance
with the recommendations of this report, Congress authorized con-
struction of the Templeton Gap Floodway for the protection of the
eastern portion of the city of Colorado Springs. The project was com-
pleted in 1949.

b. House Document No. 327, 81st Congress, Arkansas River,
LOcal Flood Protection at Pueblo, Colorado. As recommended in this
report, Congress authorized the construction of a levee extension to
the Arkansas River Floodway at Pueblo. The project was completed in
1952.

c. House Document No. 387, 78th Congress, Purqatoire (Picket
Wire) River, Colorado. Although a channel improvement project on the

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