New Waddell Dam
Encyclopedia
The New Waddell Dam is an embankment dam
on the Agua Fria River in Maricopa County, Arizona
, 35 mi (56 km) northwest of Phoenix
. It serves as part of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) while also providing water for the Maricopa Water District. The dam creates Lake Pleasant
with water from the Agua Fria and also the CAP aqueduct. In addition, it affords flood protection, hydroelectric power production and recreational opportunities. Construction on the dam began in 1985 and ended in 1994. Its reservoir submerged the Old Waddell Dam which had been completed in 1927 after decades of vision and planning.
After nearly 30 years of struggling with funding and pursuing various deals, William Breadsly hired engineer Carl Pleasant to assist with designing. Pleasant recommended hiring the engineer firm Peckham and James to draft plans for the storage dam at the Frogs Tank site. The gravity dam design was dropped and a relatively new, cheaper and improved design at the time was adopted; the multiple-arch buttress dam. In 1925, under a new state law, Beardsley was able to create the Beardsley-Agua Fria Water Conservation District. Under the new district, funds could be raised through a bond issue. On December 20, 1925, the construction contract was signed but the bonds had yet to be purchased. Five days before the contract was signed, Beardsley died. His son, Robert took direction of the project along with Pleasant. In early 1926, Pleasant eventually sold the needed bonds to the New York firm Brandon, Gordon and Waddell. The firm sent Donald Ware Waddell to oversee construction. Although the initial implementation of worker camps and site preparation had begun in 1925, the main effort of construction began in 1926. In that same year, the dam was renamed to Pleasant Dam. By February 1927, concrete pouring for the 20 buttresses was nearing completion. The dam was complete in October 1927; employing a maximum of 600 workers and costing over $3 million. Prior to its inauguration, cracks were discovered in the dam's buttresses. This led to much controversy over whether the dam was safe or not which delayed its inauguration. The situation was exacerbated on 12 March 1928 after the St. Francis Dam
in California had a catastrophic failure. In 1929, it was decided that the spillway for the dam be lowered 24 ft (7 m) to prevent excess water levels and stress on the dam. It was also required that specific water levels in the reservoir be maintained. The dam was rehabilitated until 1935 and a steel roadbed was installed atop it that same year. In the early 1960s, it was renamed the Waddell Dam.
recommended that it and two other projects on the Gila River
be removed from the CAP plan because of their negative impacts and cost. While the two other projects (Hooker
and Charleston) were easily removed, Orme was not. Its only recommended alternative was the Buttes Dam. Orme's removal was hampered by controversy that led to the Central Arizona Water Control Study (CAWCS) being created in 1979. In 1980, the CAWCS recommended the removal of any storage units on the Gila River, to include the Buttes Dam. Recent flooding within the CAWCS area and the problem at hand led to an expansion of the study. Three years later, the Bureau of Reclamation and the State of Arizona agreed on an alternative to Orme. This was known as Plan 6 and it recommended four projects: a reconstruction of the Stewart Mountain Dam
, a new or larger Roosevelt Dam, the Cliff Dam on the Verde River
and finally, the New Waddell Dam on the Agua Fria River. On November 6, 1981, the Secretary of the Interior
James G. Watt
recommended Plan 6. In April 1984, it was approved with the exception of the Cliff Dam which needed further study and would eventually be removed from CAP.
In 1985, construction on the New Waddell Dam began with the excavation of its foundation. A diversion tunnel was constructed along with another to divert water releases from the Old Waddell Dam to the Beardsely Canal. Construction on the dam's intakes continued through 1991 and by the end of 1992, a controlled breach was performed on two arches of the Old Waddell Dam, allowing its reservoir to freely fill behind the New Waddell Dam which was already mostly inundated. By 1994, the reservoir was filled and had nearly tripled the size of the Old Waddell Dam. In that same year, the dam's pump-generating plant began operation. The dam's cost was in excess of $625 million. Large sediment releases from the New Waddell Dam deteriorated the Camp Dyer Diversion Dam 1.25 mi (2 km) downstream. This masonry dam had to be rehabilitated by the Bureau in 1992.
created by the dam, Lake Pleasant
, has a capacity of 1108600 acre.ft at its maximum elevation above sea level: 1725 ft (526 m). At maximum elevation, its surface area is 12040 acre (49 km²). The maximum conservation storage level of the reservoir is 1702 ft (519 m) when the reservoir has a surface area of 9970 acre (40 km²). Conservation storage for the reservoir is 812100 acre.ft and minimum storage 40500 acre.ft. The dam sits at the head of a 1459 sq mi (3,779 km²) catchment area. Located 1.25 mi (2 km) northwest of the dam and serving excess water levels are two different spillway
s; a 590 ft (180 m) long un-gated free flow with a crest elevation of 1706.5 ft (520 m) and a 370 ft (113 m) long fuse plug
embankment with an elevation of 1711 ft (522 m). The free flow spillway has a discharge capacity of 187000 ft3/s and the fuse plug 129000 ft3/s. At at elevation of 1728 ft (527 m), both spillways would have a combined capacity of 2187000 ft3/s.
Water from the dam's reservoir is released through its outlet works
or power plant to either the Waddell Canal or into Hank Raymond Lake which is formed just downstream of the dam by the Camp Dryer Diversion Dam. The diversion dam is a composite concrete and masonry dam with a height of 79 ft (24 m) and length of 872 ft (266 m). It can store up to 590 acre.ft at an elevation of 1445 ft (440 m). Water from Hank Raymond lake is diverted into the Beardsely Canal which has a main extension 33 mi (53 km) long to serve 60 sq mi (155 km²) of the Maricopa Water District (MWD). The Beardesly Canal also has an interconnection 4.5 mi (7 km) south of the dam at 33°46′48"N 112°16′54"W with the CAP aqueduct which allows it to receive additional water from that source. Water released into the 4.7 mi (8 km) long Waddell Canal first travels under the Agua Fria River via a 2440 ft (744 m) long siphon before being returned to the surface canal where it continues south to meet the CAP aqueduct just west of Arizona State Route 303. The capacity of the pump-generating plant, Waddall Canal and siphon is 3000 ft3/s while the outlet works for the diversion dam and Beardsely Canal are 5600 ft3/s but only 4300 ft3/s can be diverted to the canals at a time. Water from the New Waddell Dam reservoir augments supply in the CAP and helps deliver 15% more CAP water to Arizona. Water in Lake Pleasant is divided between the CAP (658300 acre.ft) and MWD (162142 acre.ft). Water from the CAP aqueduct is also drawn into Lake Pleasant via the New Waddell Dam's pump-generating station. During the winter months, when energy rates are low, additional water in the aqueduct is pumped a maximum of 192 ft (59 m) up into the lake for storage. During the summer months, when energy rates are higher, water is released back down through the generators for hydroelectric power production. Sale of this electricity is being used to pay part of the dam's cost. The pump-generating plant contains eight pump-generators and has an installed capacity of 45 MW.
have entered the lake, likely by eggs transferred through CAP water. Around the lake, Reclamation has taken steps to protect wildlife habitats, including those for bald eagles and Gila topminnows.
Embankment dam
An embankment dam is a massive artificial water barrier. It is typically created by the emplacement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil, sand, clay and/or rock. It has a semi-permanent waterproof natural covering for its surface, and a dense, waterproof...
on the Agua Fria River in Maricopa County, Arizona
Maricopa County, Arizona
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*73.0% White*5.0% Black*2.1% Native American*3.5% Asian*0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.5% Two or more races*12.7% Other races*29.6% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, 35 mi (56 km) northwest of Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
. It serves as part of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) while also providing water for the Maricopa Water District. The dam creates Lake Pleasant
Lake Pleasant Regional Park
Lake Pleasant Regional Park is a large outdoors recreation area straddling the Maricopa and Yavapai county border northwest of Phoenix, Arizona...
with water from the Agua Fria and also the CAP aqueduct. In addition, it affords flood protection, hydroelectric power production and recreational opportunities. Construction on the dam began in 1985 and ended in 1994. Its reservoir submerged the Old Waddell Dam which had been completed in 1927 after decades of vision and planning.
Old Waddell Dam
First referred to as the Frogs Tank Dam, the original Waddell Dam was the ambition of local businessmen who wanted to develop a project that used the Agua Fria for the irrigation of around 100000 acre (405 km²) of land. This was to be accomplished with a storage dam, diversion dam and system of canals. Their advancement of the project began in 1888 with the formation of the Agua Fria Water and Land Company. The company hired George Beardsley's Agua Fria Construction Company and in 1892, construction on the project began. In 1895, Breardsley died and his brother William who was now president of the Water and Land Company helped continue the project. In 1896, due to a lack funding caused by poor nationwide economic conditions, the project was halted. The Water and Land Company soon went bankrupt but William Beardsley would keep the project alive. Work had been primarily done on the diversion dam and canal while only the foundation of the storage dam, a gravity dam, was completed. The diversion dam, Camp Dyer Diversion Dam, was named after Edgar J. Dyer, a surveyor on the project.After nearly 30 years of struggling with funding and pursuing various deals, William Breadsly hired engineer Carl Pleasant to assist with designing. Pleasant recommended hiring the engineer firm Peckham and James to draft plans for the storage dam at the Frogs Tank site. The gravity dam design was dropped and a relatively new, cheaper and improved design at the time was adopted; the multiple-arch buttress dam. In 1925, under a new state law, Beardsley was able to create the Beardsley-Agua Fria Water Conservation District. Under the new district, funds could be raised through a bond issue. On December 20, 1925, the construction contract was signed but the bonds had yet to be purchased. Five days before the contract was signed, Beardsley died. His son, Robert took direction of the project along with Pleasant. In early 1926, Pleasant eventually sold the needed bonds to the New York firm Brandon, Gordon and Waddell. The firm sent Donald Ware Waddell to oversee construction. Although the initial implementation of worker camps and site preparation had begun in 1925, the main effort of construction began in 1926. In that same year, the dam was renamed to Pleasant Dam. By February 1927, concrete pouring for the 20 buttresses was nearing completion. The dam was complete in October 1927; employing a maximum of 600 workers and costing over $3 million. Prior to its inauguration, cracks were discovered in the dam's buttresses. This led to much controversy over whether the dam was safe or not which delayed its inauguration. The situation was exacerbated on 12 March 1928 after the St. Francis Dam
St. Francis Dam
The St. Francis Dam was a concrete gravity-arch dam, designed to create a reservoir as a storage point of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It was located 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, California, near the present city of Santa Clarita....
in California had a catastrophic failure. In 1929, it was decided that the spillway for the dam be lowered 24 ft (7 m) to prevent excess water levels and stress on the dam. It was also required that specific water levels in the reservoir be maintained. The dam was rehabilitated until 1935 and a steel roadbed was installed atop it that same year. In the early 1960s, it was renamed the Waddell Dam.
New Waddell Dam
In 1973, construction on the Central Arizona Project (CAP) began while many of its facilities were still being planned and approved. The predecessor project to the New Waddell Dam was the Orme Dam. The dam was deemed as required at first but in 1977, President Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
recommended that it and two other projects on the Gila River
Gila River
The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 650 miles long, in the southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona.-Description:...
be removed from the CAP plan because of their negative impacts and cost. While the two other projects (Hooker
Hooker Dam
Hooker Dam was a proposed dam on the Gila River in New Mexico, planned as a major component of the Central Arizona Project. Located near the mouth of the river's canyon upstream from the confluence of the Gila with Mogollon Creek and below Turkey Creek, the dam was to be part of the CAP's Gila...
and Charleston) were easily removed, Orme was not. Its only recommended alternative was the Buttes Dam. Orme's removal was hampered by controversy that led to the Central Arizona Water Control Study (CAWCS) being created in 1979. In 1980, the CAWCS recommended the removal of any storage units on the Gila River, to include the Buttes Dam. Recent flooding within the CAWCS area and the problem at hand led to an expansion of the study. Three years later, the Bureau of Reclamation and the State of Arizona agreed on an alternative to Orme. This was known as Plan 6 and it recommended four projects: a reconstruction of the Stewart Mountain Dam
Stewart Mountain Dam
The Stewart Mountain Dam is a concrete thin arch dam located 41 miles northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. The dam is long, high, and was built between 1928-30. The dam includes a 13,000 kilowatt hydroelectric generating unit that is operated by SRP , an Arizona public utility. It is primarily...
, a new or larger Roosevelt Dam, the Cliff Dam on the Verde River
Verde River
The Verde River is the north and northwestern watershed of the Salt River–Verde River Watershed that co-join and enter the Gila River at Phoenix, Arizona, located in the U.S. state of Arizona...
and finally, the New Waddell Dam on the Agua Fria River. On November 6, 1981, the Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...
James G. Watt
James G. Watt
James Gaius Watt served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior for President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1983.-Early life and career:...
recommended Plan 6. In April 1984, it was approved with the exception of the Cliff Dam which needed further study and would eventually be removed from CAP.
In 1985, construction on the New Waddell Dam began with the excavation of its foundation. A diversion tunnel was constructed along with another to divert water releases from the Old Waddell Dam to the Beardsely Canal. Construction on the dam's intakes continued through 1991 and by the end of 1992, a controlled breach was performed on two arches of the Old Waddell Dam, allowing its reservoir to freely fill behind the New Waddell Dam which was already mostly inundated. By 1994, the reservoir was filled and had nearly tripled the size of the Old Waddell Dam. In that same year, the dam's pump-generating plant began operation. The dam's cost was in excess of $625 million. Large sediment releases from the New Waddell Dam deteriorated the Camp Dyer Diversion Dam 1.25 mi (2 km) downstream. This masonry dam had to be rehabilitated by the Bureau in 1992.
Design and operation
The New Waddell Dam is 300 ft (91 m) high from the riverbed and 440 ft (134 m) high from its bedrock foundation. It is a zoned earth-fill type and is 4700 ft (1,433 m) long; containing 16200000 cu yd (12,385,789 m³) of material. The dam has a crest width of 35 ft (11 m) and a base width of 1514 ft (461 m). The reservoirReservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
created by the dam, Lake Pleasant
Lake Pleasant Regional Park
Lake Pleasant Regional Park is a large outdoors recreation area straddling the Maricopa and Yavapai county border northwest of Phoenix, Arizona...
, has a capacity of 1108600 acre.ft at its maximum elevation above sea level: 1725 ft (526 m). At maximum elevation, its surface area is 12040 acre (49 km²). The maximum conservation storage level of the reservoir is 1702 ft (519 m) when the reservoir has a surface area of 9970 acre (40 km²). Conservation storage for the reservoir is 812100 acre.ft and minimum storage 40500 acre.ft. The dam sits at the head of a 1459 sq mi (3,779 km²) catchment area. Located 1.25 mi (2 km) northwest of the dam and serving excess water levels are two different spillway
Spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...
s; a 590 ft (180 m) long un-gated free flow with a crest elevation of 1706.5 ft (520 m) and a 370 ft (113 m) long fuse plug
Fuse plug
A fuse plug is a collapsible dam installed on spillways in dams to increase the dam's capacity.The principle behind the fuse plug is that the majority of water that overflows a dam's spillway can be safely dammed except in high flood conditions. The fuse plug may be a sand-filled container, a...
embankment with an elevation of 1711 ft (522 m). The free flow spillway has a discharge capacity of 187000 ft3/s and the fuse plug 129000 ft3/s. At at elevation of 1728 ft (527 m), both spillways would have a combined capacity of 2187000 ft3/s.
Water from the dam's reservoir is released through its outlet works
Outlet works
A set of outlet works is a device used to release and regulate water flow from a dam. Such devices usually consist of one or more pipes or tunnels through the embankment of the dam, directing water usually under high pressure to the river downstream...
or power plant to either the Waddell Canal or into Hank Raymond Lake which is formed just downstream of the dam by the Camp Dryer Diversion Dam. The diversion dam is a composite concrete and masonry dam with a height of 79 ft (24 m) and length of 872 ft (266 m). It can store up to 590 acre.ft at an elevation of 1445 ft (440 m). Water from Hank Raymond lake is diverted into the Beardsely Canal which has a main extension 33 mi (53 km) long to serve 60 sq mi (155 km²) of the Maricopa Water District (MWD). The Beardesly Canal also has an interconnection 4.5 mi (7 km) south of the dam at 33°46′48"N 112°16′54"W with the CAP aqueduct which allows it to receive additional water from that source. Water released into the 4.7 mi (8 km) long Waddell Canal first travels under the Agua Fria River via a 2440 ft (744 m) long siphon before being returned to the surface canal where it continues south to meet the CAP aqueduct just west of Arizona State Route 303. The capacity of the pump-generating plant, Waddall Canal and siphon is 3000 ft3/s while the outlet works for the diversion dam and Beardsely Canal are 5600 ft3/s but only 4300 ft3/s can be diverted to the canals at a time. Water from the New Waddell Dam reservoir augments supply in the CAP and helps deliver 15% more CAP water to Arizona. Water in Lake Pleasant is divided between the CAP (658300 acre.ft) and MWD (162142 acre.ft). Water from the CAP aqueduct is also drawn into Lake Pleasant via the New Waddell Dam's pump-generating station. During the winter months, when energy rates are low, additional water in the aqueduct is pumped a maximum of 192 ft (59 m) up into the lake for storage. During the summer months, when energy rates are higher, water is released back down through the generators for hydroelectric power production. Sale of this electricity is being used to pay part of the dam's cost. The pump-generating plant contains eight pump-generators and has an installed capacity of 45 MW.
Recreation
Lake Pleasant created by the dam offers recreational opportunities to tourists and locals. The lake is served by a marina and surrounding areas containing over 450 picnic sites, 225 camping sites and several miles of trails. Because the lake is seasonal, fluctuating up to 125 ft (38 m) annually, these facilities are located for accessibility during these periods.Environmental impact
Before the New Waddell Dam was constructed, two phases of a three phase study were carried out to determine the effects of the dam on fisheries. Completed in 2005, the third phase of the study has determined that the larger reservoir has less nutrient concentrations due to CAP water introduction and that water fluctuations have reduced fish cover, likely effecting food and spawning. Large mouth bass populations have also declined but striped bassStriped bass
The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire...
have entered the lake, likely by eggs transferred through CAP water. Around the lake, Reclamation has taken steps to protect wildlife habitats, including those for bald eagles and Gila topminnows.
External links
- New Waddell Dam at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
- Waddell Dam history at the U.S. Library of Congress