Tuesday May 27, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle —
California’s second-largest reservoir, Lake Oroville, reached capacity Friday, hitting the high water mark for the third straight year — a first for the 57-year-old reservoir.
The milestone comes after a moderately wet winter in California, with enough snow in the mountains, particularly in the north, to melt and flush substantial water into state reservoirs. This week, water storage in California’s major reservoirs stood at a comfortable 116% of average for the time of year, ensuring decent supplies for the rest of 2025.
At Lake Oroville, about 70 miles north of Sacramento in Butte County, water levels rose Friday morning to within inches of the 900-foot elevation mark that state water managers deem full pool, prompting notice that the reservoir had hit capacity. At capacity, the lake holds 3.4 million acre-feet of water, enough to supply more than 7 million households for a year.
The lake’s supplies are at the heart of the State Water Project, a network of nearly two dozen dams and reservoirs run by the California Department of Water Resources. The state facilities provide drinking water for 27 million people, mostly in the Bay Area and Southern California.