Trinity Dam
| Trinity Dam | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Country | United States |
| Location | Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, Trinity County, California |
| Coordinates | 40°48′04″N 122°45′48″W / 40.80111°N 122.76333°WCoordinates: 40°48′04″N 122°45′48″W / 40.80111°N 122.76333°W |
| Construction began | 1957 |
| Opening date | 1962 |
| Owner(s) | U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Earthfill |
| Impounds | Trinity River |
| Height | 538 ft (164 m) |
| Length | 2,450 ft (750 m) |
| Spillway type | Morning glory |
| Spillway capacity | 22,400 cu ft/s (630 m3/s) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Trinity Lake |
| Total capacity | 2,447,650 acre·ft (3,019,130 dam3) |
| Inactive capacity | 400,000 acre·ft (490,000 dam3) |
| Catchment area | 692 sq mi (1,790 km2) |
| Surface area | 17,722 acres (7,172 ha) |
| Power station | |
| Hydraulic head | 426 ft (130 m) |
| Turbines | 2x Francis |
| Installed capacity | 140 MW |
| Annual generation | 359 million kWh |
Trinity Dam is an earthfill dam on the Trinity River located about 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Weaverville, California in the United States. The dam was completed in the early 1960s as part of the federal Central Valley Project to provide irrigation water to the arid San Joaquin Valley.
Standing 538 ft (164 m) high, Trinity Dam forms Trinity Lake – California's third largest reservoir, with a capacity of more than 2,400,000 acre feet (3,000,000 dam3). The dam includes a hydroelectric plant, and also provides flood control to the Trinity and Klamath river basins.
Below the dam is Lewiston Lake, formed by a second dam, which diverts water through a 3-mile tunnel to the Sacramento Valley.
In response to the Great Depression and drought conditions in California during the early 20th century, the United States Congress passed the 1935 Rivers and Harbors Act, which authorized the Central Valley Project (CVP) – a system of dams and canals to provide a stable supply of irrigation water to California's Central Valley. Among the project works was a 1942 proposal to divert water from the Trinity River in northwestern California to augment water supplies in the CVP service area, known as the Trinity River Division. However, the state dropped the Trinity River project from the CVP in 1945.
Six years later, however, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), which was responsible for the construction and operations of most CVP facilities, revived the division, which comprised a system of four dams and two tunnels to capture and store the flow of the Trinity and transport it to the Sacramento River, generating a net surplus of hydroelectric power along the way. Trinity Dam was to be the main storage feature of the division, providing a stable flow to the Lewiston Dam, the diversion point for Trinity River waters into the Central Valley.
...
Wikipedia