About the Projects and Facilities Database
The Projects and Facilities Database is the new electronic presentation (replacing Dataweb) of the Bureau of Reclamation's Project Data Book. Compilations of this kind of information have been published beginning in 1941 under the title Summarized Data on Federal Reclamation Projects and continued until 1982 as Reclamation Project Data (Supplemental). These publications have served the continuing need for historical, statistical, and technical information on the projects of Reclamation by legislators, State and Federal officials, water users, engineers, educators, students, and others, in foreign countries as well as the United States, who are concerned about water resource development. The Projects and Facilities Database attempts to continue to serve this need by providing up-to-date project information on the Internet.
As you read about these individual projects, most of which are located west of the 100th Meridian, you will quickly realize that the original statement by the Congress in the Reclamation Act of 1902, " . . . . the construction and maintenance of irrigation works for the storage, diversion, and development of waters for reclamation of arid and semiarid lands. . . "has been expanded by the concept of multiple-purpose development. By applying this concept, Reclamation assures the Nation that maximum benefits are being derived today and will be in the future as we manage our water resources.
On this website, Reclamation projects, substantially complete and in operation, are reviewed in detail with considerable attention to history, costs, beneficiaries, engineering, water data, and productivity. Pages on individual Projects, Dams, and Power Plants can be found by selecting off of alphabetical and state listings, and flat maps.
The names of projects and their chief features have sometimes changed. Names used during the planning and development stages of projects may later be changed by action of the Congress or upon review by the Board on Geographic Names. Statistical data are also subject to change. Dimensions of structures may change because of structural alterations. Because of the changing nature of this information, neither the authors, Reclamation, nor any other party involved in preparing the material and data available on or through this site, warrant or represent that the information provided here is in every respect complete and accurate, and are not responsible for errors or omissions.
Today, Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier, operating 348 reservoirs with a total storage capacity of 245 million acre-feet of water. These reservoirs provide irrigation water to 10 million farmland acres which produce 60-percent of the Nation's vegetable and one-quarter of its fresh fruit and nut crops. Reclamation also delivers 10 trillion gallons of water to more than 31 million people each year. Reclamation is also the second largest producer of hydropower in the United States where the 58 hydroelectric powerplants have annually produced, on average over the last 10 years, 44 billion kilowatt-hours. Reclamation also manages 308 recreation sites that have 90 million visits annually.
Reclamation manages, develops, and protects water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public.
