General
The Tucumcari Project, in east-central New Mexico surrounding the city of Tucumcari, has about 41,000 acres of irrigable land. Project features include the Conchas Dam and Reservoir (constructed by the Corps of Engineers), Conchas and Hudson Canals, and a distribution and drainage system.
History
Some lands in the project area have been in cultivation for 145 years, but residents of Quay and San Miguel Counties primarily have been livestock producers. The first wagon train passed through the area in 1832. Quay County was formed in 1903, 2 years after the founding of Tucumcari. Extensive settlement occurred during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To early settlers, the possibility of farming these semiarid lands depended on whether rainfall would be sufficient to produce crops.
Construction
Construction of the irrigation system began in 1940 and continued to December 1942, when work was suspended by the War Production Board. The project was reauthorized in April 1944 as a war emergency food project. First water was delivered to project lands in 1946 and construction was essentially completed in 1950. Operation of the project disclosed a need for the drainage improvement work which was accomplished by construction contracts during 1952-1954. The Arch Hurley Conservancy District desired further improvement to the project distribution and drainage system, and in May 1961 district forces initiated a rehabilitation and betterment program which included the installation of about 86 miles of canal and lateral linings and the addition of about 23 miles of open drains. The program was completed during 1976.
Plan
Water stored in the Conchas Reservoir, 31 miles northwest of Tucumcari, is conveyed to the land in the Conchas Canal and its branch, the Hudson Canal. The canals deliver the water to the 172-mile distribution system which serves the project lands. Conchas Dam, constructed by the Corps of Engineers on the Canadian River, is a concrete gravity section flanked by embankment wings. The dam has a structural height of 235 feet, a crest length of 6,230 feet, and a volume of 836,000 cubic yards of concrete and 887,000 cubic yards of earth. The main spillway is an overflow section 300 feet long in the main section of the dam. An emergency spillway, located on the north dike, is 3,000 feet long and is 17 feet higher than the main spillway. The irrigation outlet works is a circular pressure tunnel leading to the gate chamber, then into two steel penstocks in a horseshoe tunnel. The reservoir has a capacity of 528,951 acre-feet, of which 252,334 acre-feet are conservation storage. The 84-mile Conchas Canal has an initial capacity of 700 cubic feet per second. The canal includes 31 siphons aggregating 21,921 feet in length, and 5 tunnels with a cumulative length of 30,140 feet. Commencing at mile 56.5 on the Conchas Canal, the Hudson Canal extends 26 miles through the project lands. The initial capacity is 384 cubic feet per second. The canal has one siphon 3,200 feet long. Conchas Dam, including the canal headworks structure, is operated and maintained by the Corps of Engineers. Operation and maintenance responsibility of the rest of Tucumcari Project was turned over to the Arch Hurley Conservancy District on January 1, 1954.
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