WSP04624

• File Number: 8220.145.A
• Description: La Plata Project ‎(New Mexico)‎
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Date: 4/1/1944
• Author: USDOI/BOR
• Title: La Plata Project: Colorado-New Mexico - Project Investigations Report No. 32-A
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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On April 5, 1941, at Santa Fe, New Mexico, this joint committee
representing La Plata River water users of each state approved a mem-
orandum agreement for construction and irrigation development in
Colorado and New Mexic o.

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The terms of the agreement are as follows:

1. "The construction of the State Line Reservoir to an
irrigation capacity of 12,000 acre-feet, or a total capacity of
32,000 acre-feet including flood control and silt storage.

2. "The construction of the Long Hollow Reservoir to an
irrigation capacity of 14,000 acre-feet.

3. "The project acroages in Colorado and New Mexico to
be determined by tho Bureau of Reclamation, based upon the
available water supply. Tentative acreages, 3,800 for New Mex-
ico, have been suggosted as equitable, and such acreage for
Colorado as lIUl.y bo dotermined from studios by the Reclamation
Bureau so as to provide a firm wator supply for the areas in
each of the states.

4. "The La Plata Compact to rellUl.in in effect; the admin-
istrative provisions of the compact being considered sufficiently
elastic to fit into the operation of storage under the proposed
projoct. "

The terms of tho agroement were approved by the New Mexico Inter-
state Streoma Commission on April 15, 1941, and by the Colorado Water
Conservation Board on June 28, 1943.

Project Plan

The agreement by tho joint c ommi ttoe forms the basis of the
adoptod project plnn except that Long Hollow Reservoir would be con-
structed to an irrigation capacity of 12,000 acre-feet, as the bene-
fits from additional capacity would not be commensurate with the
additional cost.

In the operation studies of State Line Reservoir the irrigation
requirements for New Mexico have been fixed at an annual release of
3.5 acre-feet per acre for an area of 3,800 acres, or 13,300 acre-
feet annually, an amount sufficient, with use of return flow and an
ideal seasonal distribution, for the adequate irrigation of these lands.
When State Line Reservoir is empty, compact deliveries are to be
resumed.

Because of the large aroa irrigated now or in recent years in
Colorado, the great annual variability in water supply, and the cost
of storage for holO.'-over purposes, the area to be irrigated by the
project in Cc)oradc is,not fixed. The area would in timo adjust i t-
self to the available water supply.

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