Black Canyon Diversion Dam () is a dam in

Gem County, Idaho Gem County is a county in the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2010 census, the population was 16,719. The county seat and largest city is Emmett. Gem County is part of the Boise, ID Metropolitan Statistical Area. Gem County is home to the Ida ...

. The concrete dam was originally completed in 1924, then re-constructed between 1951 and 1955, by the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

. Its structure has a height of , and a length of at its crest. It impounds the

Payette River The Payette River () is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 3, 2011 river in southwestern Idaho and is a major tributary of the Snake River. Its headwaters originate ...

for the diversion of water into the Black Canyon and North Side Main irrigation canals, and the generation of about 2 megawatts of hydroelectric power, part of the Bureau's larger Boise Project. The dam is owned and operated by the Bureau. The riverine reservoir it creates, the Black Canyon Reservoir, has a normal water surface of , about twelve miles of shoreline, and an original maximum capacity of 44,700

acre-feet The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows. An acre-f ...

, reduced by siltation to about 31,200 acre-feet. Recreation includes boating and fishing. The installation of a third hydropower generating unit has been funded by

Bonneville Power Administration The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is an American federal agency operating in the Pacific Northwest. BPA was created by an act of Congress in 1937 to market electric power from the Bonneville Dam located on the Columbia River and to cons ...

for completion in 2013.

References

{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Gem County, Idaho Dams in Idaho Reservoirs in Idaho United States Bureau of Reclamation dams Dams completed in 1924 Energy infrastructure completed in 1955 Hydroelectric power plants in Idaho Lakes of Gem County, Idaho Boise Project 1924 establishments in Idaho