New Melones Dam is an earth and rock filled
damA dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions...
across the
Stanislaus RiverThe Stanislaus River in California is one of the largest tributaries of the San Joaquin River. The river is 65 miles long and has north, middle and south forks. The north and south forks meet several miles upstream from New Melones Lake and the middle fork joins the north fork a few miles before...
creating
New Melones LakeNew Melones Lake is an artificial lake in the central Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras- and Tuolumne County, California near Jamestown. This reservoir created by the construction of the New Melones Dam across the Stanislaus River has a capacity with a surface area of...
. Situated between
Calaveras-Calaveras County is a county located in the Gold Country of the U.S. state of California. Calaveras is named for the Spanish word meaning skulls, reportedly for the bones of fighters left behind after an Indian war that were discovered by Captain Gabriel Moraga. As of the 2000 census, it had a...
and
Tuolumne County, CaliforniaTuolumne County is a county located in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. The northern half of Yosemite National Park is located in the eastern part of the county. As of 2000 the population was 54,501...
in the Sierra Nevada foothills near
JamestownJamestown is a census-designated place in Tuolumne County, California, United States. The population was 3,017 at the 2000 census.A scene from the movie Hidalgo was filmed in Jamestown, CA...
, the dam was completed in 1979 replacing the old Melones Dam.
The
United States Bureau of ReclamationThe Bureau of Reclamation is an agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior and oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and/or operation of numerous water diversion, delivery, and storage and hydroelectric power generation projects it built throughout...
operates the dam. New Melones Dam's primary purpose is to provide water for irrigation. It is a high earth and rock-filled structure creating a reservoir.
The dam has a hydroelectric plant with a capacity of 300 MW.
New Melones Dam is an earth and rock filled
damA dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions...
across the
Stanislaus RiverThe Stanislaus River in California is one of the largest tributaries of the San Joaquin River. The river is 65 miles long and has north, middle and south forks. The north and south forks meet several miles upstream from New Melones Lake and the middle fork joins the north fork a few miles before...
creating
New Melones LakeNew Melones Lake is an artificial lake in the central Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras- and Tuolumne County, California near Jamestown. This reservoir created by the construction of the New Melones Dam across the Stanislaus River has a capacity with a surface area of...
. Situated between
Calaveras-Calaveras County is a county located in the Gold Country of the U.S. state of California. Calaveras is named for the Spanish word meaning skulls, reportedly for the bones of fighters left behind after an Indian war that were discovered by Captain Gabriel Moraga. As of the 2000 census, it had a...
and
Tuolumne County, CaliforniaTuolumne County is a county located in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. The northern half of Yosemite National Park is located in the eastern part of the county. As of 2000 the population was 54,501...
in the Sierra Nevada foothills near
JamestownJamestown is a census-designated place in Tuolumne County, California, United States. The population was 3,017 at the 2000 census.A scene from the movie Hidalgo was filmed in Jamestown, CA...
, the dam was completed in 1979 replacing the old Melones Dam.
Background
The
United States Bureau of ReclamationThe Bureau of Reclamation is an agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior and oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and/or operation of numerous water diversion, delivery, and storage and hydroelectric power generation projects it built throughout...
operates the dam. New Melones Dam's primary purpose is to provide water for irrigation. It is a high earth and rock-filled structure creating a reservoir.
The dam has a hydroelectric plant with a capacity of 300 MW. It has three vertical
Francis turbinesThe Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis. It is an inward flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts.Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today...
and a head of . The plant has a low capacity factor and operates as a peaking facility, which means that it operates mostly during times of peak electricity demand.
Controversy
The dam was one of the last built in California, as the
environmental movementThe environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green movements, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
gained support, and as such was fiercely opposed by groups such as the
Sierra ClubThe Sierra Club is the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892 in San Francisco, California by the well-known conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
, as well as many individuals who saw the canyon of the
Stanislaus RiverThe Stanislaus River in California is one of the largest tributaries of the San Joaquin River. The river is 65 miles long and has north, middle and south forks. The north and south forks meet several miles upstream from New Melones Lake and the middle fork joins the north fork a few miles before...
as having value far beyond a reservoir. On May 20, 1979, Mark Dubois hiked into the dam site and chained himself to a boulder in the dam's floodpath, intending to block the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from filling New Melones Lake. His protest action succeeded in temporarily securing a reprieve for the Class III whitewater rapids above the Parrott's Ferry Bridge. However, in 1982 the reservoir was finally allowed to reach full design capacity.
Several cave-dwelling species that were threatened by the construction were transplanted to an abandoned mine, among them
Banksula melonesBanksula melones is a species of harvestman in family Phalangodidae. It is endemic to caves along the Stanislaus River of California, USA....
, the Melones cave harvestman.
External links