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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 along the river in the states of New Mexico and Texas.〔 (【引用サイトリンク】title=Rio Grande Project (Third Draft) ) 〕 Approximately 60 percent of this land is in New Mexico. Some water is also allotted to Mexico to irrigate some on the south side of the river. The project was authorized in 1905,〔 (【引用サイトリンク】title=Rio Grande Project ) 〕 but its final features were not implemented until the early 1950s. The project consists of two large storage dams, 6 small diversion dams, two flood-control dams, of canals and their branches and of drainage channels and pipes. A small hydroelectric plant at one of the project's dams also supplies electricity to the region.〔 (【引用サイトリンク】title=Rio Grande Project: New Mexico and Texas ) 〕 ==History== The first people to use the waters of the Rio Grande were the Pueblo Indians, who used simple irrigation systems that were noted by the Spanish in the 16th century while conducting expeditions from Mexico to North America. In the mid-19th century, American settlers began intensive irrigation development of the Rio Grande watershed. Small dikes, dams, canals, and other irrigation works were constructed along the Rio Grande and its tributaries. The river would take out some of these primitive structures in its annual floods, and a large, coordinated project would be needed to construct permanent replacements. However, investigations to begin this project did not begin until the early twentieth century. Like many rivers of the American Southwest, runoff in the Rio Grande basin is limited and varies widely from year to year.〔 〕 By the 1890s, water use in the upper basin was so great that the river's flow near El Paso, Texas, was reduced to a trickle in dry summers. To resolve these problems, plans were drafted up for a large storage dam at Elephant Butte, about downstream of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Newlands Reclamation Act was passed in 1902, authorizing the Rio Grande Project as a Bureau of Reclamation undertaking. For the next two years, surveyors and engineers undertook a comprehensive feasibility study for the project's dams and reservoirs. The first elements of the project to be built were the Leasburg Diversion Dam and about of supporting canal, begun in 1906 and finished in 1908. Elephant Butte Dam, the largest dam on the Rio Grande, was authorized by the United States Congress on February 15, 1905. Construction began in 1908, when groundworks were laid. Conflicts over the lands to be submerged under the future reservoir bogged down the project for a while, but work resumed in 1912 and the reservoir began to fill by 1915. The Franklin Canal was an existing 1890 canal purchased by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1912 and rebuilt from 1914 to 1915. The Mesilla and Percha Diversion Dams, East Side Canal, West Side Canal, Rincon Valley Canal, and an extension of the Leasburg Canal were built in the period between 1914 and 1919.〔 In the late 1910s, a problem developed with rising local groundwater levels caused by irrigation. In response, Reclamation began planning for the extensive drainage system of the Rio Grande Project in 1916. Contracts for the construction of these drainage systems, as well as distribution canals (laterals) were not awarded until the period from 1917 to 1918. Before 1929, the entire irrigation system would be overhauled. This involved repairing, rebuilding and extending old canals; and construction of new laterals. Work is still in progress, as agricultural development in the region continues to grow.〔 The last major components of the project were constructed from the 1930s to the early 1950s. Caballo Dam, the second major storage facility of the project located north of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico was built from 1936-1938. Caballo was built to provide flood protection for the projects downstream, stabilize outflows from Elephant Butte, and replace storage lost in Elephant Butte Reservoir due to sedimentation. With the benefit of flow regulation, a small hydroelectric plant was completed in 1940 at the base of Elephant Butte Dam. The construction of power transmission lines was begun in 1940, and was finally completed by 1952.〔〔 (【引用サイトリンク】title=Rio Grande Project: Home ) 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rio Grande Project」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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