| The San Diego County Water Authority
Board of Directors today certified the enironmental impact
report to raise San Vicente Dam by 117 feet. The $568
million project, to be built on top of the existing San
Vicente Dam in Lakeside, will expand the reservoir to hold
an additional 52,000 acre-feet of water for use during
emergencies and another 100,000 acre-feet of water to
supplement imported supplies during dry periods.
“Raising San Vicente Dam will significantly enhance our
water supply reliability,” said Water Authority Board Chair
Fern Steiner. “As we face increased challenges to our water
supplies, we not only must diversify our water supply
portfolio, we must also improve our infrastucture to
reliably store and deliver water to our region.”
Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2009 and to
be completed in late 2012. This project will be the largest
dam raise in the United States and the largest in the world
using roller compacted concrete.
The raising of the San Vicente Dam has two key
components: emergency storage and carryover storage. The
raising of San Vicente Dam is the fourth phase of the Water
Authority’s approximately $1.2 billion Emergency Storage
Project. The ESP will provide up to six months of water if a
natural disaster such as an earthquake cuts off the region’s
imported water supplies. It achieves this through 20,000
acre-feet of water storage in Lake Hodges, 18,000 acre-feet
in the Olivenhain Reservoir, as well as 52,000 acre-feet in
San Vicente Reservoir, providing a total of 90,000 acre-feet
of water for use during emergencies.
In addition to emergency storage capacity, San Vicente
will hold 100,000 acre-feet of water for carryover storage.
Carryover storage allows the Water Authority to store water
during wet periods for use during subsequent dry years. In
total, the additional 152,000 acre-feet of water in San
Vicente could meet 40 percent of San Diego County’s needs
for a year.
The city of San Diego, which owns the San Vicente Dam and
Reservoir, has begun lowering the reservoir’s water level in
preparation for the project. Fishing and water recreation at
the reservoir will be allowed starting May 1, 2008 through
the summer. Fishing will be allowed on Thursday and Friday,
and water sports will be permitted Friday through Sunday. To
assure public safety, the reservoir will be closed to all
recreation when the water level drops below the boat launch
at the reservoir’s marina. It will remain closed during dam
construction. The reservoir will reopen to recreation
between 2014 and 2017, when the water level reaches the boat
launch at the reservoir’s new, expanded marina.
Contact:
John Liarakos
(858) 522-6703 Office
(858) 761-2544 Cell
Or
Craig Balben
(858) 522-6726 Office |
