Richard L. Schafer Dam is located on the Tule River, about five miles east and upstream of the town of Porterville, Tulare County, California. An earthen dam 145 feet tall and 3,490 feet long, then-Success Dam and Lake were authorized as part of the Tule River Project under the Flood Control Act of 1944 and construction was completed in 1961. The reservoir has since provided flood risk management, water storage and recreation benefits for southern Central California communities.
The dam was renamed on October 1, 2019, to Richard L. Schafer Dam. Schafer was an integral and active member of the Central Valley water community for many years, serving as an active participant on numerous water boards and providing consultation for 13 different water management organizations. For more than 20 years, Schafer spearheaded the local effort to partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to increase water storage in Success Lake. He passed away at age 95 in July 2021.
The dam was well-built using design standards that were current at the time of construction. Seismic reanalysis that began in 1992 indicated that the alluvial (loose soil or sediment) foundation underlying the dam is susceptible to liquefaction, which in a major earthquake could cause the dam to fail.
In 1999, Congress authorized USACE to study how to address seismic risk to the dam. The study revealed additional concerns about seepage and overtopping, requiring further study and funding authorizations. In late 2006, the Corps began limiting the amount of water stored in Success Lake to minimize flood risk to the public while USACE studied the dam and developed a solution.
New requirements and modifications to USACE's dam evaluation process since 2004 required additional analysis and a new type of report. Upon completion of this report in 2010, the USACE national dam safety program required the district to perform a baseline risk assessment, which is a comprehensive analysis of all the dam’s safety risks using the same methods now being applied to USACE dams throughout the nation. This re-evaluation demonstrated that the risk associated with liquefaction (dam failure during an earthquake) and seepage is significantly less than early study results indicated, and on April 11, 2014, USACE approved raising the operating restriction of the reservoir behind Schafer Dam to the then-maximum authorized storage capacity of 82,291 acre-feet of water, or a storage elevation of 652.5 feet.
Phase 1 construction of the Tule River Spillway Enlargement project began in September 2020 and was completed in February 2022. Phase II construction began in August 2022 and is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2024. Upon completion, the current authorized storage capacity of Success Lake will increase from 84,095 acre-feet of water to approximately 112,000 acre-feet, reducing flood risk and increasing water conservation capacity for the region.
The project’s major improvements include widening the spillway by 165 feet, construction of a 10-foot-tall ogee weir that spans the spillway, armoring of Frasier Dike and the HWY 190 bridge, and construction of a high-access boat launch.