Black Butte Lake Water Level
Black Butte Lake is at 435.65 ft today (Oct 31), 37.85 ft below its 473.5 ft full pool, up 0.79 ft this week.
California · Stony Creek
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Water level history
About Black Butte Lake
Black Butte Lake is a reservoir on the Stony Creek in California, operated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its full summer pool sits at 473.5 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Black Butte Lake's water level
Black Butte Dam is the flood stopper for lower Stony Creek. The Corps of Engineers started the main embankment in June 1960 under the Flood Control Act of 1944, finished the project in August 1963 and began storing water that October. The earthfill dam runs 2,970 feet across Stony Creek about eight miles west of Orland and catches runoff from roughly 740 square miles of Coast Range foothills. Before it was built, Stony Creek was expected to carry about 80,000 cubic feet per second in a fifty year flood. The channel below the dam can carry 15,000 cubic feet per second without appreciable damage to farmland and 40,000 before Orland and Hamilton City are at risk. Under the water control manual, releases are held to 5,000 cubic feet per second until inflow passes 10,000, then set at half of inflow, up to the 15,000 limit. The lake also covers the original site of the Orland Project's Southside Diversion Dam, and the project's South Canal has drawn water directly from the reservoir since 1963.
The level follows the calendar more than the weather. The Corps runs the reservoir for flood control from mid October to mid March and Reclamation runs it for irrigation the rest of the year. The 1987 water control manual requires flood space to grow from zero on 1 September to its maximum by 30 November, and that maximum, 137,000 acre-feet, is nearly the whole reservoir. That is why the lake sits low through fall and winter, and why the space is only released step by step through spring, reaching zero by 15 June. Summer then pulls the pool back down as irrigation water goes to the South Canal and downstream. Gross pool is 473.5 feet, while the bottom of the pool and inactive level sit at 414.6 feet. Sediment from the erodible Franciscan hills upstream has cut storage from a design figure of 160,000 acre-feet to 136,200 at gross pool in current Corps tables, a loss of roughly 700 acre-feet a year. Congress financially tied the dam into the Central Valley Project in 1970, and Reclamation coordinates its operation while the Corps keeps running the dam.
At full pool the lake covers 4,460 acres, runs about seven miles in a V shape and has roughly 40 miles of shoreline, so a fall drawdown exposes a lot of bare bank. Boat ramps are at Buckhorn, Orland Buttes and Eagle Pass, and they do not all stay usable as the water drops. In December 2013 the Corps closed the Buckhorn ramp for low water, leaving Eagle Pass open with a warning that some boats might not be able to launch there. Buckhorn's ramp was later widened to twice its old size. The Corps describes the lake as a warm water fishery that is best in spring and early summer, with crappie, largemouth and smallmouth bass and channel catfish. Because of mercury, the state's 2021 advisory tells women 18 to 49 and children not to eat black bass from the lake, and limits everyone else to one serving a week. Just below the dam, the City of Santa Clara runs a small hydroelectric plant under federal license, two units totaling about 6.1 megawatts that came online in 1988.
Black Butte Lake — frequently asked
What is Black Butte Lake's full pool elevation?
Gross pool is 473.5 feet, which Corps data also lists as the top of the flood control pool. At that level the lake covers 4,460 acres and holds about 136,200 acre-feet under current Corps tables, down from 143,700 in the 1987 water control manual and 160,000 when the dam was designed. The spillway design flood pool reaches 509.8 feet with 354,000 acre-feet, and the top of the dam is 515 feet.
Why is Black Butte Lake so low in the fall and winter?
Flood control. The Corps must open up space for storm runoff starting from zero on 1 September and reaching its maximum by 30 November. That maximum reservation, 137,000 acre-feet in the 1987 water control manual, is nearly the entire reservoir. Add the summer irrigation drawdown that comes before it, and the lake typically enters the rainy season well below gross pool and stays there until spring.
When does Black Butte Lake refill?
Refill happens in spring. The Corps runs the lake for flood control from mid October to mid March, then Reclamation takes over for the irrigation season. The required flood space shrinks through spring and reaches zero by 15 June, so the lake can be allowed to rise toward 473.5 feet as late storms and runoff come in. How close it gets depends on how wet the Stony Creek watershed was that year.
What was the biggest flood at Black Butte Dam?
February 1986 set the marks recorded in the water control manual. The ten day inflow volume of 370,000 acre-feet was a historical record, bihourly inflow peaks reached 41,000 and 44,400 cubic feet per second, and releases peaked at 23,300 cubic feet per second below the dam. The pool rose into surcharge storage and the spillway flowed at up to 3,900 cubic feet per second. The spillway had also run briefly in March 1983.
Is Black Butte Lake part of the Orland Project?
No. The Orland Project, Reclamation's first project, relies on East Park and Stony Gorge reservoirs upstream. Black Butte was built by the Corps for flood control, but it sits on the old Southside Diversion Dam site, and the Orland Project's South Canal diverts straight from the lake. A 1970 law tied Black Butte financially into the Central Valley Project and coordinated its operation with Reclamation.
Is it safe to eat fish from Black Butte Lake?
With limits. A 2021 advisory from California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, based on mercury, says women 18 to 49 and children 1 to 17 should not eat black bass from the lake. Women 50 and older and men may eat one serving of black bass a week, two of channel catfish or carp, and three of crappie. Threadfin shad are the least restricted species.
Could Black Butte Lake be made bigger?
It is being studied. A coalition including Glenn, Tehama and Colusa counties, the City of Orland, the Orland Unit Water Users' Association and the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority signed a nonbinding agreement, running through March 2029, to study spillway control structures that could add up to 200,000 acre-feet of storage. Reclamation and the Corps are listed as partners. No project has been approved.
Other lakes near Black Butte Lake
- Boca ReservoirCA
- Lake BerryessaCA
- Camanche ReservoirCA
- Tulloch ReservoirCA
- Don Pedro ReservoirCA
- Trinity LakeCA
See current levels for all 29 California lakes and reservoirs →
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