California Reservoirs Near 100%; Phantom Tulare Lake Reemerges

Written by Joel B. Pollak on June 13, 2023. Posted in Current News

Two of California’s largest reservoirs in Northern California are near 100 percent capacity, and the newly-resurrected Tulare Lake in the Central Valley is near its peak size, as the spring runoff from a rainy winter continues

Lake Shasta (pictured), which is run by the federal government, and Lake Oroville, which supplies the state water project, are at 98 and 99 percent capacity, respectively.

Authorities are carefully managing both to prevent overflows.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Shasta Lake in Shasta County and Lake Oroville in Butte County, where much of Northern California’s water is stored, are at 98 and 99 percent of their total capacity, respectively, for the first time in five years, according to data from the state Department of Water Resources.

Lake Oroville, which supports 27 million Californians, has experienced water storage whiplash over the last five years — a sign of how volatile the state’s hydrology has been.

The last time water storage levels neared capacity was in July 2019. By August 2021, it had hit historic lows.

Also close to full capacity are Folsom Lake in the Sierra Nevada foothills, now at 93 percent of its total capacity, and Castaic Lake in Los Angeles County, at 96 percent.

By 2021, Lake Oroville had dipped so low that it had to shut off its hydroelectric plant for the first time since the facility’s construction half a century ago.

Meanwhile, the Chronicle adds, Tulare Lake has reached 178 square miles, which may be its peak size.

The lake, which dried up during the last century due to water diversion projects, has reemerged due to runoff from heavy rains and snow this past winter, which defied predictions and ended a crippling three-year drought.

Californians feared heavy flooding due to the sheer size of the snowpack on the Sierra Nevada mountains.

But a cool spring has kept the snowmelt at a steady pace rather than a rush, thus far avoiding the worst-case scenario.

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