07 – Anderson Ranch Dam

Anderson Ranch Dam is an earth and rockfill dam located on the South Fork of the Boise River in Elmore County, Idaho. Standing at 456 feet tall and 1,350 feet long, it was the tallest dam of its type in the world upon its completion in 1950. The dam creates Anderson Ranch Reservoir, which has a total capacity of 503,500 acre-feet and a surface area of 4,815 acres. Its primary purpose is to provide irrigation water for agriculture, with hydroelectric power generation as a secondary function. The powerplant, commissioned in 1951 and upgraded in 1986, has an installed capacity of 40 megawatts.​Wikipedia+3Wikipedia+3Wikipedia+3

Construction began in 1941 but faced delays due to material, fuel, and labor shortages during World War II, including a nine-month halt starting in December 1942. In 1943, Japanese American internees from the Minidoka War Relocation Center were employed to address labor shortages. Currently, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Idaho Water Resource Board are collaborating on a project to raise the dam by six feet, which will increase storage capacity by approximately 29,000 acre-feet; the design phase is scheduled for completion in summer 2024.​

More Information

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anderson_Ranch_Dam

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