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Schafer Dam

Field	Value
name	Success Dam
name_official	Richard L. Schafer Dam
location_map	California
location_map_caption	Location of Success Dam in California
coordinates
country	United States
location	Porterville, California
construction_began
opening
dam_type	Embankment
dam_height	156 ft
dam_length	3490 ft
dam_volume	5560000 yd3
dam_elevation_crest	652.5 ft
dam_crosses	Tule River
res_name	Lake Success
res_capacity_total	82300 acre feet
res_catchment	393 mi2
res_surface	2450 acre

Schafer Dam—formerly Success Dam, prior to 2019—is a dam across the Tule River in Tulare County, California, United States. Serving mainly for flood control and irrigation, the dam is an earthen embankment structure 156 ft high and 3490 ft long. The dam lies about 5 mi east of Porterville and impounds Lake Success, with a built-capacity of 82300 acre feet, and an operational capacity of 28800 acre feet due to dam stability concerns.

History

The dam was initially authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944 as part of an extensive system of dams and levees to provide flood protection in the Tulare Lake basin of the southern San Joaquin Valley.{{cite web |archive-date=April 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100410201303/http://www.usbr.gov/mp/sccao/storage/docs/initial_alt_info/ta_iai_04_vol2_flood_dmg_ta.pdf |url-status=live

The Corps of Engineers found in 1999 that the alluvial deposits that form the foundations of the dam were unstable and that the dam would be at a high risk of failure in the event of an earthquake. In 2006, new regulations were passed that limited long-term water storage in the reservoir to 28800 acre feet, 35% of capacity.{{cite web |archive-date=October 13, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013101532/http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/documentShow.cfm?Doc_ID=4781 |url-status=live |archive-date=February 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130201032519/http://www.recorderonline.com/articles/remedy-42153-success-dam.html |url-status=live

In August 2019, the 116th Congress of the United States enacted PL-116-41 which said (in part) that the Success Dam in Tulare County, California, shall hereafter be known and designated as the ‘‘Richard L. Schafer Dam’’.

In January 2025, the dam received national attention after President Trump signed orders to release significantly more water from several Federal dams to put more water in Los Angeles Basin water reservoirs, following the destructive Los Angeles wildfires earlier that month. According to the Los Angeles Times, "it was not clear where federal officials intended to send the water that was being released from the dams." Outflows from the dam discharge into the Tulare Lake bed almost 200 mi north of Los Angeles, and there is no infrastructure to deliver Tule River water to Southern California.

References

"Success Dam (SCC)". California Department of Water Resources.
"An Act to rename the Success Dam in Tulare County, California, as the Richard L. Schafer Dam".
James, Ian. (2025-01-31). "Acting on Trump's order, federal officials opened up two California dams". Los Angeles Times.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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