The Rio Grande, known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte and as the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio Grande is 1,896 miles (3,051 km) and originates in south-central Colorado, in the United States, and flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Rio Grande drainage basin (watershed) has an area of 182,200 square miles (472,000 km2); however, the endorheic basins that are adjacent to and within the greater drainage basin of the Rio Grande increase the total drainage-basin area to 336,000 square miles (870,000 km2).
Elephant Butte Reservoir is a reservoir on the southern part of the Rio Grande in the U.S. state of New Mexico, 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Truth or Consequences. The reservoir is the 84th largest man-made lake in the United States and the largest in New Mexico by total surface area and peak volume. It is the only place in New Mexico that one can find pelicans perched on or alongside the lake. There are also temporary US Coast Guard bases stationed at Elephant Butte. It is impounded by Elephant Butte Dam and is part of the largest state park in New Mexico, Elephant Butte Lake State Park.
Elephant Butte Dam or Elephant Butte Dike, originally Engle Dam, is a concrete gravity dam on the Rio Grande near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The dam impounds Elephant Butte Reservoir, which is used mainly for agriculture but also provides for recreation, hydroelectricity, and flood and sediment control. The construction of the dam has reduced the flow of the Rio Grande to a small stream for most of the year, with water being released only during the summer irrigation season or during times of exceptionally heavy snow melt.
Amistad Reservoir is a reservoir on the Rio Grande at its confluence with the Devils River 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Del Rio, Texas. The lake is bounded by Val Verde County on the United States side of the international border and by the state of Coahuila on the Mexican side of the border; the American shoreline forms the Amistad National Recreation Area. The reservoir was formed in 1969 by the construction of Amistad Dam. The dam and lake are managed jointly by the governments of the United States and Mexico through the International Boundary and Water Commission. The name of the dam and lake is the Spanish word for "friendship". The reservoir is also known as Lake Amistad.
Falcon Dam is an earthen embankment dam on the Rio Grande between Starr County in the U.S. state of Texas and the city of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The dam was built for water conservation, irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, flood control, and recreational purposes and as an international border crossing between Zapata and Starr Counties and Tamaulipas. Construction on the dam began in December 1950 and ended in April 1954 but it was dedicated by presidents Adolfo Ruiz Cortines and Dwight D. Eisenhower in October 1953.
Navajo Dam is a dam on the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado River, in northwestern New Mexico in the United States. The 402-foot (123 m) high earthen dam is situated in the foothills of the San Juan Mountains about 44 miles (71 km) upstream and east of Farmington, New Mexico. It was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) in the 1960s to provide flood control, irrigation, domestic and industrial water supply, and storage for droughts. A small hydroelectric power plant was added in the 1980s.
The Rio Grande Project is a United States Bureau of Reclamation irrigation, hydroelectricity, flood control, and interbasin water transfer project serving the upper Rio Grande basin in the southwestern United States. The project irrigates 193,000 acres (780 km2) along the river in the states of New Mexico and Texas. Approximately 60 percent of this land is in New Mexico. Some water is also allotted to Mexico to irrigate some 25,000 acres (100 km2) on the south side of the river. The project was authorized in 1905, but its final features were not implemented until the early 1950s.
Navajo State Park is a state park of Colorado, USA, on the north shore of Navajo Lake. Touted as Colorado's answer to Lake Powell, this reservoir on the San Juan River begins in Colorado's San Juan Mountains and extends 20 miles (32 km) into New Mexico. Its area is 15,000 acres (6,100 ha), and it has 150 miles (240 km) of shoreline in two states. Park activities include boating, houseboating, fishing, camping, and wildlife viewing. There is a New Mexico state park at the southern end of the lake.
Caballo Dam is an earthen dam on the Rio Grande about 15 miles (24 km) downstream from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, United States. In conjunction with Elephant Butte Dam, which lies about 25 miles (40 km) upstream, it regulates the discharge of the river in the lower Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. Caballo serves as an afterbay for the Elephant Butte Reservoir, i.e. it stores water released from Elephant Butte for hydroelectricity generation purposes and discharges it in the dry season to provide for irrigation agriculture downstream. The dam is an important part of the Rio Grande Project. A secondary purpose of the dam was to compensate for lost capacity in Elephant Butte Lake due to sedimentation.
Amistad Dam is a major embankment dam across the Rio Grande between Texas, United States, and Coahuila, Mexico. Built to provide irrigation water storage, flood control, and hydropower generation, it is the largest dam along the international boundary reach of the Rio Grande. The dam is over 6 miles (9.7 km) long, lies mostly on the Mexican side of the border, and forms Amistad Reservoir. It supplies water for irrigation in the Rio Grande Valley, 574 miles (924 km) upstream of the Rio Grande's mouth on the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, Texas/Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
The San Juan–Chama Project is a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation interbasin water transfer project located in the states of New Mexico and Colorado in the United States. The project consists of a series of tunnels and diversions that take water from the drainage basin of the San Juan River – a tributary of the Colorado River – to supplement water resources in the Rio Grande watershed. The project furnishes water for irrigation and municipal water supply to cities along the Rio Grande including Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
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.
The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) was formed in 1925 to manage the irrigation systems and control floods in the Albuquerque Basin. It is responsible for the stretch of river from the Cochiti Dam in Sandoval County in the north, through Bernalillo County, Valencia County and Socorro County to the Elephant Butte Reservoir in the south. It manages the Angostura, Isleta and San Acacia diversion dams, which feed an extensive network of irrigation canals and ditches.
Rio Grande Silvery Minnow v. Bureau of Reclamation, called Rio Grande Silvery Minnow v. Keys in its earlier phases, was a case launched in 1999 by a group of environmentalists against the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the United States Army Corps of Engineers alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The case resulted in significant changes to water and river management in the Middle Rio Grande Basin of New Mexico in an effort to reverse the damage that had been done to the habitat of two endangered species.
Heron Dam is a storage dam Rio Arriba County, in northern New Mexico in the southwestern United States, just north of the El Vado Dam. It is owned and operated by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. The dam is about 9 miles west of the town of Tierra Amarilla.
Trinchera Creek is a tributary of the Rio Grande in Costilla County, Colorado in the United States. It flows west from a source in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to a confluence with the Rio Grande.
John Martin Reservoir is a reservoir on the Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado. Built and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it is used for flood control, irrigation, and recreation. John Martin Reservoir State Park lies on its shore.
Peruvannamuzhi dam, also known as Kuttiady (Id) Dam, is a dam built on the Kuttiady River at Peruvannamuzhi in Chakkittapara Grama Panchayath in Kozhikode district, Kerala. It is 16 km away from Kuttiady town and it is 55 km from Kozhikode town. It was constructed as part of the Kuttiady irrigation project. The project consists of a masonry dam across Kuttiyady River and 13 earth dams to maximize the storage of the reservoir. The construction of this project started in 1962 and was commissioned in 1973.
Kenney Reservoir is located in Rio Blanco County, Colorado five mlies east of the town of Rangely along Colorado State Highway 64. The reservoir is owned and managed by the Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District.
Meenkara Dam is an embankment or earthen dam built on the banks of the river Gayatripuzha, a tributary of the river Bharathapuzha, at Muthalamada in the Muthalamada Grama Panchayat near Kollengode in the Palakkad district of Kerala with masonry spillway sections. It is part of the Gayatri Irrigation Project. The project was started in 1956 and partially commissioned in 1960. The project was fully completed in 1964. The irrigation scheme has been prepared for agriculture and drinking water in Palakkad district. Farms in Chittoor, Nemmara, Alathur in Palakkad district and Vadakkancherry in Thrissur district will benefit from this irrigation scheme.
