Imperial Dam
Background
The Imperial Dam was built with three sections; the gates of each section hold back the water to help divert the water towards the desilting plant. Three giant desilting basins and seventy-two 770 ft (230 m) scrapers hold and desilt the water; the removed silt is carried away by six sludge-pipes running under the Colorado River that dump the sediment into the California sluiceway, which returns the silt to the Colorado River. The water is now directed back towards one of the three sections which divert the water into one of the three channels. About 90% of the volume of the Colorado River is diverted into the canals at this location. Diversions can top 40,000 cubic feet (1,100 m) per second, roughly the volume of the Susquehanna River and more than 50 times the flow of the Rio Grande.
The Gila project aqueduct branches off towards Arizona while the All-American canal branches southwards for 37 miles (60 km) before reaching its headworks on the California border and bends west towards the Imperial Valley.
References
- Bureau of Reclamation (29 June 2009). "Imperial Diversion Dam". U.S. Department of the Interior. Archived from the original on 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
- "Imperial Diversion, California". FindLakes. 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2009-09-17.