Red Bluff Diversion Dam
| Red Bluff Diversion Dam | |
|---|---|
Aerial view looking downstream, dam gates partially open. Diversion works and Tehama Colusa Canal are to the right.
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Tehama County, California |
| Coordinates | 40°09′13″N 122°12′09″W / 40.15361°N 122.20250°WCoordinates: 40°09′13″N 122°12′09″W / 40.15361°N 122.20250°W |
| Purpose | Irrigation |
| Status | Decommissioned |
| Construction began | 1962 |
| Opening date | 1964 |
| Construction cost | $3,465,155 |
| Owner(s) | U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Concrete gravity |
| Impounds | Sacramento River |
| Height (foundation) | 52 ft (16 m) |
| Length | 5,985 ft (1,824 m) |
| Elevation at crest | 256 ft (78 m) |
| Dam volume | 9,630 cu yd (7,360 m3) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Lake Red Bluff |
| Total capacity | 4,170 acre·ft (5,140,000 m3) |
| Catchment area | 8,900 sq mi (23,000 km2) |
Red Bluff Diversion Dam is a disused irrigation diversion dam on the Sacramento River in Tehama County, California, United States, southeast of the city of Red Bluff. Until 2013, the dam provided irrigation water for two canals that serve 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) of farmland on the west side of the Sacramento Valley. The dam and canals are part of the Sacramento Canals Unit of the Central Valley Project, operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. In 2013, the dam was decommissioned and the river allowed to flow freely through the site in order to protect migrating fish. A pumping plant constructed a short distance upstream now supplies water to the canal system.
The dam is a concrete gated weir design, 5,985 feet (1,824 m) long, with a structural height of 52 feet (16 m). Eleven fixed wheel gates, each 60 feet (18 m) wide and 18 feet (5.5 m) high, control the outflow of water to the Sacramento River. The concrete piers between the gates are 8 feet (2.4 m) in width. The entire structure contains about 9,600 cubic yards (7,300 m3) of concrete. Lake Red Bluff, formed by the dam when the gates are lowered, had a maximum depth of 13 feet (4.0 m), a normal storage of 3,920 acre feet (4,840,000 m3), and a maximum storage of 4,170 acre feet (5,140,000 m3). The original design of the dam included two fish ladders, one on each end of the dam; a third was added in 1984 in the middle of the dam.
A diversion headworks and settling basin on the south bank of the Sacramento River originally provided a gravity flow of water to two aqueducts, the Tehama-Colusa Canal and Corning Canal. The headworks consist of six 11.5-by-10-foot (3.5 m × 3.0 m) radial gates with a capacity of 3,100 cubic feet per second (88 m3/s). This water is now lifted directly from the Sacramento River via a pumping plant constructed as part of the Red Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project. The pumping plant has a capacity of 2,000 cubic feet per second (57 m3/s), with potential future expansion to 2,500 cubic feet per second (71 m3/s).
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