Santa Fe Dam is a flood-control dam on the San Gabriel River located in

Irwindale } Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,472 at the 2020 census, 1,422 at the 2010 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, which i ...

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. For most of the year, the -high dam and its reservoir lie empty, but can hold more than of water during major storms. During the dry season, the basin behind the dam is used for

groundwater recharge Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in ...

, as well as various recreational activities.

History

Construction of the dam began in 1941 under the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

(USACE), mainly in response to major floods on the river in

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

; however, work stopped in 1943 and did not resume again until 1946 due to the unlucky intervention of a major flood and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The dam embankment and spillway were completed in early 1947, and the entire project was finished in January 1949 with the installation of the spillway gates, four months ahead of schedule. The primary mission of the dam was to serve as a flood risk management tool to the communities along the San Gabriel River downstream of the Basin.

Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in 1955 stating that the county wished to develop recreation amenities in the basin, but funds committed elsewhere precluded recreation development at the basin until 1974. A Master Plan was prepared by the corps in 1975. It described recreation amenities proposed to be cost shared equally between the corps and the county and to be maintained by the county. The majority of the existing recreation amenities in the basin were built between 1976 and 1984. The recreation amenities constructed during this time period were jointly developed by the corps and county on a cost shared basis. The original lease with the county was signed in May 1976 with a term of 50 years. In 1984 at the completion of the recreation amenities, the lease was amended to extend through December 2036. A master plan update in 1995 reflected 1995 conditions and proposed additional recreation development. During most of the year, the empty reservoir behind the Santa Fe Dam is used for recreational purposes. The

Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area The Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area is a county park located in Irwindale, California, US, in the San Gabriel Valley, inside the Santa Fe Dam. The park and dam are nestled among gravel quarries in the area, many of which are currently inactive. Th ...

, located in

, is an multi-use facility located behind the dam. The park's main feature is a lake with boat rentals, fishing, a swimming beach, hiking trails, cycling trails, and

California native plants California native plants are plants that existed in California prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonists in the late 18th century. California includes parts of at least three phytochoria. The largest is the California Floristic ...

and

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

habitat conservation Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in ter ...

areas.

Statistics

Santa Fe Dam is a horseshoe-shaped curved gravity structure located on the alluvial flood plain of the San Gabriel River roughly downstream from the

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains () are a mountain range located in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert ...

. The dam is of zoned earthen construction and has a structural height of , standing above the riverbed. It is one of the largest dams by volume in the United States, containing more than of material in an embankment more than four miles long. The reservoir formed behind Santa Fe has a maximum capacity of at spillway crest, below the top of the dam itself. Water releases from the dam are controlled by two sets of gates. The outlet works, located at the base of the dam, are fed by sixteen diameter conduits capable of discharging . The emergency

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

is located to the northwest of the dam and comprises a concrete overflow weir with a capacity of .

Operations

The dam functions as a

dry dam A dry dam is a dam constructed for the purpose of flood control. Dry dams typically contain no gates or turbines, and are intended to allow the channel to flow freely during normal conditions. During periods of intense rainfall that would otherw ...

, with its reservoir empty most of the year. During large floods, water is stored behind the dam and then released as quickly as possible without exceeding the capacity of downstream

levee A levee ( or ), dike (American English), dyke (British English; see American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, spelling differences), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is an elevated ridge, natural ...

s. Releases from Santa Fe are coordinated with

Whittier Narrows Dam Whittier Narrows Dam is a 56-foot (17 m) tall earth dam on the San Gabriel River and the smaller, parallel Rio Hondo. The dam is located, as the name implies, at the Whittier Narrows. It provides water conservation storage and is also the cen ...

downstream, as well as the upstream Cogswell, San Gabriel and

Morris Morris may refer to: Places Australia * St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Man ...

Dams, to provide flood protection to cities along the San Gabriel River. By capacity, it is the second largest dam along the San Gabriel, after Whittier Narrows. During the summer and autumn months, most of the water flowing into the Santa Fe reservoir is diverted into the Santa Fe Spreading Grounds, located near the upper end of the flood control basin, helping to recharge

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

levels in the

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern ...

. Excess inflow can be sent to the Peck Road Water Conservation Area and additional

spreading ground A spreading ground is a water conservation facility that retains surface water long enough for it to percolate into the soil. Spreading grounds must be located where underlying soils are soil permeability, permeable and connected to a target aqu ...

s along the Rio Hondo. As a result, the San Gabriel River channel below the dam is often bone dry. Most of the

s are owned and maintained by the

Los Angeles County Department of Public Works The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LACDPW) is responsible for the construction and operation of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County's roads, building code, building safety, Sewage collection and disposal, sewerage, an ...

, reclaiming an average of of water each year.

References

{{LA County dams Dams in Los Angeles County, California San Gabriel River (California) Geography of the San Gabriel Valley Dams completed in 1949 United States Army Corps of Engineers dams Azusa, California Irwindale, California

History

Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area

Statistics

Operations

See also

References