This is a list of dams on the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. sta ...

system of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. The Colorado runs from the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

to the Gulf of California, draining parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states. The river system is one of the most heavily developed in the world, with fifteen dams on the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow. ...

of the Colorado and hundreds more on

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

. Collectively, dams in the Colorado River basin can hold four to five times the river's annual flow, generating hydroelectricity and supplying irrigation and municipal water for over 35 million people. Dams on tributaries are listed if they are taller than , store more than , or are otherwise historically notable. Tributary dams are organized into two lists; those in the Upper Basin, defined as the half of the Colorado River basin above

Lee's Ferry Lees Ferry (also known as Lee's Ferry, Lee Ferry, Little Colorado Station and Saints Ferry) is a site on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona in the United States, about southwest of Page and south of the Utah–Arizona state li ...

, Arizona, and the Lower Basin. The Upper Basin include such tributary systems as the Green, Gunnison and

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

. Tributaries in the Lower Basin include the

Little Colorado The Little Colorado River () is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona, providing the principal drainage from the Painted Desert region. Together with its major tributary, the Puerco River, it drains an area of about i ...

, Virgin and Gila. A key tributary of the San Juan River, the Animas River, was severely affected by the

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

's accidental August

2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill The 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill was an environmental disaster that began at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado, when Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) personnel, along with workers for Environmental Restoration LLC (a Miss ...

. Notes: *Flood control: Temporary retention and quick release of flood flows *Hydropower: Generation of electricity utilizing water flow through the hydraulic head provided by the dam and reservoir *Irrigation: Provision and storage of water for agriculture *Municipal: Provision and storage of water for residential, commercial and industrial uses *Regulation: To control erratic inflows to provide either a stable flow downstream or to release water on demand to downstream users

Main stem

Upper Basin

Lower Basin

Notes

References

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Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

Colorado dams