Hooker Dam was a proposed dam on the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, planned as a major component of the

Central Arizona Project The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a 336 mi (541 km) diversion canal in Arizona in the southern United States. The aqueduct diverts water from the Colorado River at the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge south portion of Lake Havasu n ...

. 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 River Division, authorized under the 1968 Colorado River Basin Project Act. The project was planned to provide /year of water to western New Mexico. Hooker Dam was to be located in

Gila National Forest The Gila National Forest is a United States national forest in New Mexico. Established in 1905, it now covers approximately , making it the sixth largest national forest in the continental United States. The Forest administration also manage ...

near the boundary of the

Gila Wilderness Gila Wilderness was designated the world's first wilderness area on June 3, 1924. Along with Aldo Leopold Wilderness and Blue Range Wilderness, the 558,014 acre (225,820 ha) (872 sq. mi.) wilderness is part of New Mexico's Gila National Fores ...

. The proposed reservoir would have extended into the Gila Wilderness. Opposition to the dam came from The Wilderness Society and the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

, as well as from Arizona, which did not wish for New Mexico to retain the waters of the Gila. The enabling legislation included the phrase "Hooker Dam or a suitable alternative" to pacify conservationists who objected to the project. Acting on a report from the

Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...

, Congress deleted funding for Hooker Dam in 1978, but left the project authorization in place. A 1982

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operatio ...

study indicated that Hooker Dam satisfied no existing need in New Mexico, with a significant environmental impact. As a result, the dam was removed from the CAP by Reclamation. Ground water was expected to satisfy local requirements through 2010, and the dam would impact critical habitat for two species of threatened fish, the

spike dace Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (Broderick book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter ...

and the

loach minnow The loach minnow (''Tiaroga cobitis'') is a species of freshwater Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the Family (biology), family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. It is the only species in the monospecific genus ''Tiaroga''. ...

. A 2004 agreement between Arizona and New Mexico, the Arizona Water Settlements Act of 2004, limited New Mexico's consumption of Gila River water to /year, with stipulations on minimum pass-through flows, all subject to a reserve of in Arizona's

San Carlos Lake San Carlos Lake was formed by the construction of the Coolidge Dam and is rimmed by of shoreline. The lake is located within the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, and is thus subject to tribal regulations. After it was built, the reservoi ...

. New Mexico is to present a plan to develop its rights by 2014; none of the options presently being considered involve a major dam. Water would be diverted from the Gila through perforated pipes in an infiltration gallery, or simply pumped from the river.

References

{{authority control United States Bureau of Reclamation proposed dams Buildings and structures in Grant County, New Mexico