Big crowds were out at Folsom Lake on Memorial Day, and with a record-breaking snowpack, the lake is now nearly full. But there’s also a large amount of water being released downstream
There’s now a plan underway to store more water in the lake, and that involves raising Folsom Dam.
Rising river levels? It’s been a surprising sight in recent days for people out along the American River.
California is in year three of a severe drought and people are being asked to conserve, but water releases from Folsom Dam are being dramatically increased this week.
After more than a year of well-below average water levels at Folsom Lake, the Bureau of Reclamation will start making releases from that reservoir early Tuesday morning.
The releases are necessary because the water level is now near the maximum allowed at this time of year for flood protection. Inflows in the last few weeks have driven the lake up to a near 425 feet, which is as high as the Bureau of Reclamation would like to have it at this time of year.
Folsom Dam has long quietly served as a backstop for Sacramento, offering critical flood protection to one of the most at-risk metropolitan areas in the country. But a few scary winter storms in the 1980s and 1990s proved that the dam and the region’s extensive system of river levees weren’t as fail-safe as thought.
That’s prompted several billion dollars of flood control work since then.
At the ripe old age of 64, Folsom Dam is about to hit a growth spurt.
Federal crews have begun a five-year effort to raise the height of the dam by 3.5 feet to increase flood protection for 440,000 downstream residents in metropolitan Sacramento, including areas of Arden-Arcade, Rosemont and many areas in the city of Sacramento as far south as the Pocket area and north to upper Natomas.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
