Wednesday September 28, 2022
FOX 40 —
California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, is located 175 miles north of Sacramento. But what happens there impacts farming throughout the entire Central Valley.
Shasta Lake is capable of holding 4,552,100 acre-feet of water, which is almost five times the capacity of Folsom Lake. When full, Shasta boasts 365 miles of scenic shoreline. But for those visiting the lake in recent months, it is impossible to ignore how that shoreline is shrinking. The water is about 150 feet below the ideal surface level.
“We’re coming out of the three driest years on record,” explained Don Bader, area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. “So that’s a huge hit to our storage, as you can see.”
Bader, the man in charge at Shasta Dam, spoke with FOX40 from the top of the dam which was constructed between 1938 and 1945.
“This is the keystone of the Central Valley Project, the federal water project in the state,” Bader said.