The Palo Verde Dam (officially called the Palo Verde Diversion Dam) is a
diversion dam on the
Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...
in
La Paz County, Arizona, and
Riverside County, California, in the southwestern
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, approximately northeast of
Blythe. The dam is earthen and rockfill, built solely to divert water into
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
canals serving the Palo Verde Irrigation District. It measures long at its crest, which is at an elevation of , and stands high above the riverbed, containing approximately of material. Construction of the dam, which began in 1956 and ended in 1958, was authorized by the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The dam was constructed to raise the water level of the river because the upstream
Hoover and
Davis Dams blocked sediment, causing significant degradation of the riverbed that hampered water diversion.
The dam diverts about of water per second to irrigate of the
Palo Verde Valley and mesa lands on the west side of the Colorado River in California. The
headworks
Headworks is a civil engineering term for any structure at the head or diversion point of a waterway. It is smaller than a barrage and is used to divert water from a river into a canal or from a large canal into a smaller canal. at Web archive
An ...
of the diversion canal consists of four by pipes, while the spillway is a gated structure consisting of three long gates separated by thick piers. The control house of the dam is found immediately upstream of the headworks area.
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See also
* List of dams and reservoirs in California
References
External links
*
*
{{Colorado_River_system
Dams in California
Dams in Arizona
Dams of the Lower Colorado River Valley
Buildings and structures in La Paz County, Arizona
Buildings and structures in Riverside County, California
Blythe, California
Dams on the Colorado River
United States Bureau of Reclamation dams
Dams completed in 1958
1958 establishments in Arizona