Irvine Lake is a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

Orange County, California Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population ...

, United States. It is on Santiago Creek, located in

Silverado, California Silverado is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Silverado Canyon, which is located in the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County, California. Portions of the town sit on a former Mexican land grant Rancho Lo ...

, east of the city of Irvine and close to

Irvine Regional Park Irvine Park is a park in Orange, California. It became California's first regional park in 1897. When first opened, it was called Orange County Park, and was originally 160 acres which were gifted by James Irvine, the park's namesake. and It ...

. The reservoir is currently operated by the Serrano Water District and

OC Parks Orange County Parks, more commonly abbreviated to OC Parks, is a government agency that maintains and oversees the public parks of Orange County, California, Orange County, California. OC Parks is responsible for of inland and Orange Coast, coas ...

. Access to the lake is via Santiago Canyon Road, the road leading from Orange to Silverado.

Cleveland National Forest Cleveland National Forest is a National forest (United States), U.S. national forest in Southern California that encompasses 460,000 acres/ of inland Montane ecosystems, montane regions. It is approximately 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean, withi ...

is on the northeast side of the lake.

History

The lake is formed by Santiago Dam at the lake's north end, which was built between 1929 and 1931, and was originally called the Santiago Reservoir. The dam was built by the

Irvine Company The Irvine Company LLC is an American private company focused on real estate development. It is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with a large portion of its operations centered in and around Irvine, California, a planned city of more ...

and the Serrano Water District (known as Serrano Irrigation District at the time); it is now owned by the Serrano Water District and the Irvine Ranch Water District and operated by Serrano Water District in conjunction with

. The lake provides drinking water to

Villa Park Villa Park is a association football, football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, with a seating capacity of 42,918. It has been the home of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witt ...

and some parts of

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

, and provides supplementary irrigation water to neighboring ranches. Stocked with

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus nigricans'') is a carnivorous, freshwater fish, freshwater, ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern United States, eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada an ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

, and

crappie Crappies () are two species of North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Pomoxis'' in the family Centrarchidae (sunfishes). Both species of crappies are popular game fish among recreational anglers. Etymology The genus name ''Pomoxi ...

, the lake fishery opened to the public in 1941. The land around the lake is owned by the Irvine Company, which leases the fishing, boating, and camping concessions to SWD Recreation Inc. The lake had not been full from 2011 onward due to an extended drought, and its levels had been steadily decreasing for years. In September 2016, it was at 13 percent of capacity. By August 2019, the lake was naturally refilled due to an unusual amount of rain. The amount of area covered in water went from 2,700

acre-feet The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows. An acre- ...

to 15,715 acre-feet in a one-year span. In 2016, Irvine Lake was closed to the public due to financial disagreements between the Serrano Water District and the Irvine Company. In August 2019, the lake was successfully reopened to the public for shore fishing and other activities after OC Parks, the Serrano Water District, and the Irvine Company came to a one-year agreement to resume operations.

References

External links

IRWD's page on Irvine LakeSWD's page on Irvine LakeRecreational information
the website of the concessionaire {{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine Parks in Orange County, California Santa Ana River Reservoirs in Orange County, California Recreational fishing in the United States Reservoirs in California Reservoirs in Southern California

History

See also

References

External links