page_title: Rio Grande Project
section_title: Caballo Dam
hierarchical_section_title: Rio Grande Project / Components of the project / Caballo Dam
caption_attribution_description: English: Caballo Dam on the Rio Grande, by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
context_page_description: 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 193,000 acres 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 25,000 acres 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, 596 miles of canals and their branches and 465 miles of drainage channels and pipes. A small hydroelectric plant at one of the project's dams also supplies electricity to the region.
context_section_description: Caballo Dam is the second major storage dam of the Rio Grande Project, located about 25 miles (40 km) below Elephant Butte. The dam is 78 feet (24 m) high above the river, 96 feet (29 m) high from its foundations, and 4,558 feet (1,389 m) long. It forms the Caballo Reservoir, which can store up to 343,990 acre⋅ft (0.42431 km³) of water. 
  The outlet works can release 5,000 cubic feet (140 m³) cubic feet per second, while the spillway has a capacity of  33,200 cubic feet (940 m³) per second. The dam has no power generation facilities, although it has been proposed that a small hydroelectric plant be installed at its base for local irrigation districts.
caption: Caballo Dam
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