Spring Creek Reservoir (California)

Spring Creek Reservoir
Location Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Shasta County, California
Coordinates 40°37′47″N 122°28′27″W / 40.6298°N 122.4741°W / 40.6298; -122.4741Coordinates: 40°37′47″N 122°28′27″W / 40.6298°N 122.4741°W / 40.6298; -122.4741
Type Reservoir
Primary inflows Spring Creek
Primary outflows Spring Creek
Basin countries United States
Max. length .5 km (0.31 mi)
Max. width .25 km (0.16 mi)
Water volume 5,870 acre·ft (7,240,000 m3)
Shore length1 2 km (1.2 mi)
Surface elevation 245 m (804 ft)
References U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Spring Creek Reservoir (California)
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The Spring Creek Reservoir is the artificial lake created by the construction of the Spring Creek Dam across Spring Creek in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest of Shasta County, California, adjacent to Keswick.

The reservoir is used mostly for flood control storage, and is rarely filled to its 5,870 acre·ft (7,240,000 m3) capacity. During the dry season, water from Spring Creek pools in a small, stagnant pond retained behind the dam, depositing contaminated sediment and acidic mine waste in the reservoir space. When flows from the Shasta Dam, upstream on the Sacramento River, are sufficient to flush contaminated water away, water held in the reservoir is released through the outlet works into the Keswick Reservoir and the Sacramento River. Despite this operation strategy, the reservoir was eventually deemed inadequate for the watershed, and can be filled to capacity by a single heavy storm event. Uncontrollable spills frequently poured into the Sacramento River during floods, through the crest spillway of the dam, which lacks gates. As a result, numerous fish kills have occurred during these sudden releases of contaminants, a major one of which was in 1969.

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