Pinto Dam

Last updated
Pinto Dam
Pinto Dam.png
Location Grant County, Washington, USA
Coordinates 47°26′50″N119°15′00″W / 47.44722°N 119.25000°W / 47.44722; -119.25000 Coordinates: 47°26′50″N119°15′00″W / 47.44722°N 119.25000°W / 47.44722; -119.25000
Opening date1948 [1]
Operator(s) United States Bureau of Reclamation
Dam and spillways
Height130 feet (40 m) [2]
Length1,900 feet (579 m) [2]
Width (base)600 feet (180 m) [2]
Reservoir
CreatesBilly Clapp Lake
Total capacity21,200 acre feet (0.0261 km3) [3]
Catchment area 190 square miles (490 km2) [3]
Surface area973.6 acres (3.940 km2) [4]

Pinto Dam is a dam in Grant County, Washington.

The dam was a project of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, completed from 1946 through 1948 as one element of the vast Columbia Basin Project for irrigation water storage, flood control, and hydroelectric power generation. [5] Pinto Dam is an earthen structure, 130 feet high and 1900 feet long at its crest, that provides offstream storage of water. [1]

Contents

The six-mile-long crescent-shaped reservoir it creates, Billy Clapp Lake, was originally called Long Lake Reservoir, but was renamed for one of the sponsors of the project, a lawyer from Ephrata, Washington. [6] [7] The lake offers year-round fishing for yellow perch, crappie, rainbow trout, and walleye. [4] The Stratford Wildlife Recreation Area borders Billy Clapp Lake on its eastern shore and hosts migrating waterfowl. Another sizable lake, Brook Lake, also stands below the dam.

Columbia Basin Project

Pinto Dam and Billy Clapp Lake are part of the Main Canal (1951) of the Columbia Basin project. [8] The canal is 8.3 miles (13.4 km), from Banks lake to Billy Clapp Lake. From the Billy Clap Lakes outlet, the lower reach of the Main Canal continues westward to divide into the East Low and West Canals near Adco on Washington 28. The canals total length is about 21 miles (34 km) including about 5.33 miles (8.58 km) in Long Lake. By constructing Long Lake Dam, later renamed Pinto Dam, Reclamation utilized the coulee to avoid additional canal costs. [9]

Billy Clapp Lake

Billy Clapp Lake formed behind Pinto Dam along the length of Long Lake Coulee. The coulee is the result of the Missoula Floods. The reservoir is 6 miles (9.7 km) long and .5 miles (0.80 km) wide with a maximum depth of 300 feet (91 m) feet. Previous to the creation of the reservoir, the basin contained five smaller lakes, i.e., Long, Coffee Pot, Pot, Cold Spring and July Lakes. [8]

Pinto Dam

Pinto Dam, a zoned earth and rockfill structure, is 1,900 feet (580 m) long and 163 feet (50 m) high above bedrock. An uncontrolled open-channel emergency spillway is provided around the left abutment of the dam in a channel excavated in rock. Billy Clapp Headworks has radial gates to regulate the flow of water into the lower reach of the Main Canal. [8]

Related Research Articles

Grant County, Washington U.S. county in Washington

Grant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2010 census, the population was 89,120. The county seat is Ephrata, and the largest city is Moses Lake. The county was formed out of Douglas County in February 1909 and is named for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

Grand Coulee Dam dam in Grant / Okanogan counties, near Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee, Washington

Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had only two powerhouses. The third powerhouse, completed in 1974 to increase energy production, makes Grand Coulee the largest power station in the United States by nameplate-capacity at 6,809 MW.

Columbia Basin Project

The Columbia Basin Project in Central Washington, United States, is the irrigation network that the Grand Coulee Dam makes possible. It is the largest water reclamation project in the United States, supplying irrigation water to over 670,000 acres (2,700 km2) of the 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) large project area, all of which was originally intended to be supplied and is still classified as irrigable and open for the possible enlargement of the system. Water pumped from the Columbia River is carried over 331 miles (533 km) of main canals, stored in a number of reservoirs, then fed into 1,339 miles (2,155 km) of lateral irrigation canals, and out into 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of drains and wasteways. The Grand Coulee Dam, powerplant, and various other parts of the CBP are operated by the Bureau of Reclamation. There are three irrigation districts in the project area, which operate additional local facilities.

Grand Coulee An ancient river bed in the U.S. state of Washington

The Grand Coulee is an ancient river bed in the U.S. state of Washington. This National Natural Landmark stretches for about 60 miles (100 km) southwest from Grand Coulee Dam to Soap Lake, being bisected by Dry Falls into the Upper and Lower Grand Coulee.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake

Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake is the reservoir created in 1941 by the impoundment of the Columbia River by the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state. It is named for Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was president during the construction of the dam. Covering 125 square miles, it stretches about 150 miles (240 km) from the Canada–US border to Grand Coulee Dam, with over 600 miles (970 km) of shoreline; by surface area it is the largest lake and reservoir in Washington. It is the home of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark Example in the Columbia Plateau of basalt butte-and-basin Channeled Scablands

Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark showcases the Drumheller Channels, which are the most significant example in the Columbia Plateau of basalt butte-and-basin Channeled Scablands. This National Natural Landmark is an extensively eroded landscape, located in south central Washington state characterized by hundreds of isolated, steep-sided hills (buttes) surrounded by a braided network of numerous channels, all but one of which are currently dry. It is a classic example of the tremendous erosive powers of extremely large floods such as those that reformed the Columbia Plateau volcanic terrain during the late Pleistocene glacial Missoula Floods.

Crab Creek

Crab Creek is a stream in the U.S. state of Washington. Named for the presence of crayfish, it is one of the few perennial streams in the Columbia Basin of central Washington, flowing from the northeastern Columbia River Plateau, roughly 5 km (3.1 mi) east of Reardan, west-southwest to empty into the Columbia River near the small town of Beverly. Its course exhibits many examples of the erosive powers of extremely large glacial Missoula Floods of the late Pleistocene, which scoured the region. In addition, Crab Creek and its region have been transformed by the large-scale irrigation of the Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project (CBP), which has raised water table levels, significantly extending the length of Crab Creek and created new lakes and streams.

Banks Lake

Banks Lake is a 27-mile (43 km) long reservoir in central Washington in the United States.

Jackson Lake Dam dam in Teton County, Wyoming, in Grand Teton National Park

Jackson Lake Dam is a concrete and earth-fill dam in the western United States, at the outlet of Jackson Lake in northwestern Wyoming. The lake and dam are situated within Grand Teton National Park in Teton County. The Snake River emerges from the dam and flows about eight hundred miles (1,300 km) through Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to its mouth on the Columbia River in eastern Washington.

Dry Falls Dam dam in Grant County, Washington, USA

Dry Falls Dam is a rockfaced earthfill type dam in the U.S. state of Washington. Located in Grant County near Coulee City, it was built as part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project. Water from the Columbia River, impounded by Grand Coulee Dam, is pumped into Grand Coulee, a formerly dry canyon, through the short Feeder Canal. Grand Coulee's north end is sealed by North Dam and Dry Falls Dam stretches across the midsection of the Coulee. This allows the water pumped from the Columbia River to fill the upper Grand Coulee, creating a large equalizing reservoir known as Banks Lake. Water from the reservoir is fed into the irrigation project's Main Canal, which runs south from Dry Falls Dam to another reservoir called Billy Clapp Lake, formed by Pinto Dam.

The Quincy-Columbia Basin Irrigation District is a non-profit quasi-municipality located in North Central Washington State that operates and maintains a portion of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. The primary function of the Irrigation District is to deliver irrigation water to farm land located in the Columbia River Basin.

Lovewell Reservoir

Lovewell Reservoir is a reservoir in Jewell County, Kansas, United States. Built and managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, it is used for flood control, irrigation, and recreation. Lovewell State Park is located on its north shore.

Kirwin Reservoir

Kirwin Reservoir is a reservoir in Phillips County, Kansas, United States. It is located next to the city of Kirwin in northern Kansas. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built it and continues to operate it for the purposes of flood control and area irrigation. The Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge lies on its shores.

Cheney Reservoir

Cheney Reservoir is a reservoir on the North Fork Ninnescah River in Reno, Kingman, and Sedgwick counties of Kansas in the United States. Built and managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for local water supply, it is also used for flood control and recreation. Cheney State Park is located on its shore.

Angostura Dam (U.S.) dam in Fall River County, South Dakota

Angostura Dam is an embankment dam across the Cheyenne River in Fall River County in southwestern South Dakota in the United States, about 75 miles (121 km) south of Rapid City. The dam consists of an earth-fill embankment with a concrete spillway section, 193 feet (59 m) high and 2,030 feet (620 m) long; it withholds the 195,121-acre-foot (0.240678 km3) Angostura Reservoir. The dam was conceived as early as 1913, but it was not until the 1930s when a regional drought caused crop failures that the project received widespread support from farmers. Built from 1946 to 1949, the dam is part of the Angostura Division of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program, and is operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Beezley Hills

The Beezley Hills are a range of hills, about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Quincy in Grant County, Washington with a maximum elevation of 2,882 feet (878 m) or 2,886 feet (879.7 m).

North Dam dam in Grant County, Washington

North Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam near the town of Grand Coulee in Grant County, Washington, United States. Construction of the dam began in 1946 and it was completed in 1951. Along with Dry Falls Dam about 22 mi (35 km) to the southeast, North Dam creates the reservoir Banks Lake within the ancient Grand Coulee riverbed. The lake serves as the equalizer reservoir of the Columbia Basin Project. Near the North Dam's left abutment is the entrance to the feeder canal of the project. The canal serves to either deliver water to the Pump-generating plant at Grand Coulee Dam or return water to Banks Lake from the same pumped-storage plant.

Outline of Washington infrastructure

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to infrastructure of the U.S. state of Washington.

References

  1. 1 2 United States Bureau of Reclamation (2009-04-30). "Pinto Dam: General". Archived from the original on 2015-06-16. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  2. 1 2 3 The Story of the Columbia Basin Project. Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. p. 59.
  3. 1 2 United States Bureau of Reclamation (2009-04-30). "Pinto Dam: Hydraulics and Hydrology". Archived from the original on 2015-06-16. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  4. 1 2 Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife. "Billy Clapp Lake" . Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  5. United States Bureau of Reclamation (2013-12-04). "Columbia Basin Project". Archived from the original on 2015-02-15. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  6. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. "Billy Clapp Lake Unit" . Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  7. Cassandra Tate (2005-03-10). "Grand Coulee Dam" . Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  8. 1 2 3 Draft Environmental Statement, Columbia Basin Project, Washington; Columbia Basin Project, Ephrata, Washington; Department of the Interior, (INT DES-75-3), Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior; Washington, D.C.; 1975
  9. The Columbia Basin Project; Wm. Joe Simonds; Bureau of Reclamation History Program; Denver, Colorado; Research on Historic Reclamation Projects; 1998