Rio Grande Project
The Rio Grande Project is a United States Bureau of Reclamation irrigation, hydroelectricity, flood control, and interbasin water transfer project serving the upper Rio Grande basin in the southwestern United States. The project irrigates along the river in the states of New Mexico and Texas. Approximately 60 percent of this land is in New Mexico. Some water is also allotted to Mexico to irrigate some on the south side of the river. The project was authorized in 1905, but its final features were not implemented until the early 1950s. The project consists of two large storage dams, 6 small diversion dams, two flood-control dams, of canals and their branches and of drainage channels and pipes. A small hydroelectric plant at one of the project's dams also supplies electricity to the region. History Long before Texas was a state, the Pueblo Indians used the waters of the Rio Grande with simple irrigation systems that were noted by the Spanish in the 16th century while conducting expeditions from Mexico to North America. In the mid-19th century, American settlers began intensive irrigation development of the Rio Grande watershed. Small dikes, dams, canals, and other irrigation works were constructed along the Rio Grande and