Dam problem led to an expansion of the study to include dams for flood control. Three years later, the Bureau of Reclamation and the State of Arizona agreed on an alternative to Orme. This was known as Plan 6, and it recommended four projects: a reconstruction of the Stewart Mountain Dam, a new or larger Roosevelt Dam, the Cliff Dam on the Verde River and finally, the New Waddell Dam on the Agua Fria River (a tributary of the Gila River). On November 6, 1981, the Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt recommended Plan 6. In April 1984, it was approved with the exception of the Cliff Dam, which needed further study and would eventually be removed from CAP. In 1985, construction on the New Waddell Dam began with the excavation of its foundation. A diversion tunnel was constructed along with another to divert water releases from the Old Waddell Dam to the Beardsley Canal. Construction on the dam's intakes continued through 1991, and by the end of 1992, a controlled breach was performed on two arches of the Old Waddell Dam, allowing its reservoir to fill freely behind the New Waddell Dam, which was already mostly inundated. By 1994, the reservoir was filled and had nearly tripled the size of the Old Waddell Dam reservoir. In that same year, the dam's pump-generating plant (New Waddell Pump-Generating Plant) began operation. The dam's cost was in excess of $625 million. Large sediment releases from the New Waddell Dam deteriorated the Camp Dyer Diversion Dam downstream. This masonry dam had to be rehabilitated by the Bureau in 1992. Design and operation The New Waddell Dam is high from the riverbed and high from its bedrock foundation. It is a zoned earth-fill type and is long; containing of material. The dam has a crest width of and a base width of . The reservoir created by the dam, Lake Pleasant, has a capacity of at its maximum elevation above sea level: . At maximum elevation, its surface area is . The maximum conservation storage level of the reservoir is when the reservoir has a surface area of . Conservation storage for the reservoir is and minimum storage . The dam sits at the head of a catchment area. Located northwest of the dam and serving excess water levels are two different spillways: a long un-gated free flow with a crest elevation of