The Spring 2019 schedule for raising the level of Lake Tulloch has been released by Ron Berry, General Manager of Tri Dam. The levels will begin rising in late March and will conclude for the summer levels by May 27th.
Date Low High
3/22/2019 3/31/2019 498.6 501.6
4/01/2019 4/07/2019 499.4 502.4
4/08/2019 4/14/2019 500.1 503.1
4/15/2019 4/21/2019 500.9 503.9
4/22/2019 4/28/2019 501.7 504.7
4/29/2019 5/05/2019 502.4 505.4
6/06/2019 5/12/2019 503.2 506.2
5/13/2019 5/19/2019 504.0 507.0
5/20/2019 5/26/2019 505.5 508.5
5/27/2019 6/02/2019 506.5 509.5
6/03/2019 9/15/2019 506.5 509.3
For more than 60 years the levels of the lake have fluctuated. Other than time required for reservoir maintenance, the lake is lowered each year beginning in September by about 10 feet and raised up to its near capacity in the late spring. The principle reason for this was flood control but these procedures were begun prior to construction of New Melones Dam. Lake Tulloch contains about 3% of the amount of water in Melones. Therefore, the real flood control on the Stanislaus is with New Melones not Tulloch therefore a change could be made in maintaining the levels lake at a much high level which would change the lake into year round use my making docks available for use nearly 12 months a year.
Supervisor Dennis Mills has been working with the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate the possibility of keeping the lake’s level at a much higher use year round. You can read the background paper prepared by Supervisor Mills by clicking this link.
Also more than 500 citizens have signed a petition supporting the proposal to keep lake levels at a higher level. You can view the petition by clicking on this link.