WSP06903

• File Number: 8549.600
• Description: Wagon Wheel Gap Reservoir
• State: CO
• Basin: Rio Grande
• Water Division: 3
• Date: 12/1/1941
• Title: Rio Grande Water Conservancy District and Wagon Wheel Gap Reservoir
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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'I'hl'eats of serious litigation however pre-
vented any action until a settlement could
be made with the lower states.
After foul' years of negotiations, a tem-
porary eompact or truce was agreed upon
by which all three interested states agreed
to cooperate in an endeavor to have the
Outlet Drain constructed, to return water to
the dyer now lost by evaporation in the
area non-tributary to the Rio Grande in
the San Luis Valley.

Senator Lawrence C. Phipps succeeded in
ticcuI'ing an appropriation in the United
States Senate of $800,000 to construct the
Outlet Drain in 1936, but it was impossible to
get the appropriation up fot' eonsideration
in the Lower Housc.
Senator Alva B. Adams secul'cd the pass-
age of a like appI'opl'iation in the following
~e~8ion of the Senate, but this again failed
of consideration in the House.
Through the efforts of our representatives
in Cangl'css led by Senator Adams a 1001'fr
grant of $900,000 was made out of the first
Public Works appropriation, but it was still
impossible to prevail upon New Mexico and
Texas to withdraw objections to rcservoir
construction in Colorado, and the grant
could not be safely used.
On the organization of the National Re-
sources Planning Board, the aid of this
board was enlisted. Through funds aggl'c-
'~ating some $500,000 contributed by the Sec-
retary of the Interior, the three states con-
cerned and val'ious Federal agencies, with
the cooperation of practically every F'ederal
Agency having to do with hydraulics, and
the hydraulic agencies of the three states,
a most careful and complete study was made
of the entiI'e Rio Grande Basin from Fort
Quitman, Texas to the source, resulting in
the report of the Rio Grande Joint Investi-
gation, covering water supply, soil condi-
tions, rcquil'ements, present Uses, all pres-
ent reservoir sitcs and transmountain di-
ven'lion possibilities -- the most extensive
report. ever made on any irrigated basin in
the United States.
The report was so complete and so many
ot the outstanding engineers of the country
participated in its preparation, that no one
from either of the three states could ques-
tion the findings therein contained, and
based on the facts determined by this re-
port compiled by disinterested authorities,
on March 18. 1938, a permanent compact
was agl'eed upon, equitably dividing the
waters of the Rio Grande between the three
st.ates of Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
The compact Was approved by the Legisla-
tUI'es of the three states and their respec-
tive govel'nOI'S, and then approved by the
Congress of the United States and by the
President,
Although up until the time the report of
the Rio Grande Joint Investigation was pub-
lished, the principal effOl,ts of wate!' users
were centered on the construction of the
Vega Sylvester Reservoir, it was immediate-
ly apparent from the I'eport that the capac-
ity of this site would fall far short of provid-

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ing the necessary wet to dry storage to
cover the needs of water users and properly
regulate the supply. Since which time all
efforts have been centered on the Wagon
Wheel Gap. The full capacity of this res-
ervoir is needed.

In 193~) through an act of Congress Se-
cured by our Senators, Alva B. Adams and
Edwin C. Johnson, supported by the latc
Congressman John Martin, late Congress-
man Edward T. Taylor, and Congressmen
Lewis and Cummings, a survey was made
by the Corps of Army Engineers to deter-
minte the benefits for flood control.
The Reclamation Service then filed its
report, and the President ordered the two re-
ports fonvarded to Congress togcther. Both
reports found the Wag-on Wheel Gap Res-
ervoir to be engineeringly feasible and eco-
nomicall:r sound. These reports were then
submitted to the National Resoul'ces Plan-
ning Board, the Secretary of War and the
Secretary of the InteI'ior, and reviewed, and
then reconsidel.ed by the President. who
found the project engineel'ingly feasible,
economically sound and most desirable, and
l'ecomnlended that 40% of the cost be charg-
ed to flood control and 60% to irrigation,
The construction of the project was then
authorized and the Congress made an appro-
pI'iation of $150,000 to complete the investi-
gation and start constl'uction in 1940, and a
further appropriation of $110,000 was made
by the CongTesS in 1941 to carryon this
work.

All objection to construction has been re-
moved, and construction has been author-
ized, and it is now possible to take the
fourth logical step in the completion of the
irrigation development of the San Luis Val-
ley, that of providing wet to dry storage.
For fifty years the people of the San Luis
Valley have prayed for this opportunity and
now for the first tirrte since the imposition of
the Embargo in 1896, are in a position to
accomplish it.

Ii

Engineering

On account of the international and inter-
state differences involved, this area has been
under the close scrutiny of engineers repre-
senting the National Government, as well as
the engineers of the stat.es affected, fol' the
last half century. Engineers representing
various localities of the basin have made
many examinations and reports. No other
locality has had like engineering attention.
All hydraulic facts have been examined and
re-examined again and again. The United
States is conceded to have the best hydraulic
engineers in the world and practically all of
these have investigated this problem at one
time 01' another during the last fifty years.
All engineering data either in the hands of
the Federal Government, or of the states in-
volved, was made available to the Rio
Grandc ,Joint Investigation.
Thc engineers of practically every agency
of the l:t'edcral Government having to do