La Boquilla Dam

La Boquilla Dam (Spanish: Presa de la Boquilla) is a masonry arch-gravity dam on the Rio Conchos in Chihuahua, Mexico. It was built in 1910 to provide hydroelectricity, irrigation and flood control, and forms Toronto Lake with a capacity of 2.903 cubic kilometres (2,354,000 acre⋅ft).^[1] The dam and the nearby town of Boquilla de Conchos are named for the abrupt narrowing of the Conchos valley where the dam was built: boquilla means "nozzle" or "mouth".

La Boquilla Dam
Location of La Boquilla Dam in Mexico
Official name	Presa de la Boquilla
Location	San Francisco de Conchos Municipality, Chihuahua
Coordinates	27°32′41″N 105°24′51″W / 27.54472°N 105.41417°W / 27.54472; -105.41417
Construction began	1910
Opening date	1915
Owner(s)	Comisión Federal de Electricidad
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Gravity
Impounds	Rio Conchos
Height (foundation)	80 m (260 ft)^[1]
Reservoir
Creates	Toronto Lake
Total capacity	2.903 km^3 (2,354,000 acre⋅ft)
Installed capacity	25 MW
Annual generation	164.6 GWh

Construction began in 1910 and was completed in 1915. The dam has overflowed several times throughout its history, most notably in 1917 and 2008, causing severe flooding downstream.^[2]

The power plant at the dam has a generating capacity of 25 megawatts. In 2004 it produced 164,660,000 kilowatt hours of energy.^[3]

One demonstrator was killed and another injured in September 2020 during a protest by farmers against sending water from La Boquilla Dam to the United States as stipulated in a treaty signed in 1944 relating to the utilization of waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande. Locals blamed the Mexican National Guard, who responded they did not do it and that the event needed to be investigated.

The National Guard later withdrew from the site.^[4]

See also

• Lago Colina Dam
• List of dams and reservoirs § Mexico
• List of lakes in Mexico

References

1. Comisión Nacional del Agua (2008). Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (ed.). (PDF) (in Spanish). Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales. p. 69. ISBN 978-968-817-895-9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
2. . e-medianews.com. Archived from the original on 2016-05-22.
3. Carbon Monitoring for Action
4. "VIDEO: Campesinos se enfrentan y desalojan a Guardia Nacional, se oponen a entrega de agua de presa a Estados Unidos". La Opinión (in Spanish). 9 September 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.