The San Diego County Water Authority is raising the San Vicente Dam by 117 feet and adding storage capacity for over 300,000 families in the process. The dam raising project increases the height of the 220 foot tall structure and adds an additional 152,000 acre-feet of storage to the current storage capacity of the reservoir. An acre-foot of water is enough water to meet the needs of two single-family homes of four people for one year.
The San Vicente Dam Raise is the final part of the San Diego County Water Authority Emergency Storage Project. During the last decade the project has been in place, $1.5 billion has been spent on planning and construction of facilities for storage and delivery of an emergency water supply.
"Our current drought, regulatory restrictions on pumping water from Northern California, and likely changes in precipitation prompted by climate change give stark evidence why San Diego County needs additional storage capacity. Storage isn't a silver bullet for our region's water reliability, but had this additional storage been available today, it could have significantly reduced the need to cut back water deliveries to member agencies this year." said Water Authority General Manager Maureen Stapleton.
"This project is an excellent example of the kind of new infrastructure California needs to respond to our water supply challenges," said Mike Chrisman, California Secretary for Natural Resources.
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