SACRAMENTO, California -- SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The amount of water that can be stored at Success Lake is going up this summer.
A temporary deviation to the water control manual of Success Dam was approved May 23 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow the Tule River Association to construct a sandbag barrier across the Success Dam spillway.
The temporary barrier will increase the reservoir’s gross elevation from 652.5 feet to 656.5 feet, plus two feet of freeboard, providing an additional 10,000 acre-feet of water storage following a wet winter.
The operational changes will be in effect for approximately 60 days and will begin immediately. For those who recreate at Success Lake, this deviation will have some impacts. Portions of the park will have restricted access, including the Rocky Hill recreation area which will be closed and inaccessible except by boat for the extent of the operational changes.
During high water years, the Tule River Association has periodically requested a water control manual deviation to better manage water releases during snow melt and avoid downstream flooding impacts. The last water control manual deviation was approved in 2017.
Success Dam is located on the Tule River, about five miles east and upstream of the town of Porterville. The dam and reservoir were authorized as part of the Tule River Project under the Flood Control Act of 1944 and construction was completed in 1961. The reservoir provides flood risk management, water storage and recreation benefits to the local area.
Release no. 19-006