Enlarging Shasta Lake: Total Water Management Strategy for the Central Valley Basin, California

Enlargement of Shasta Lake, possibly up to three or four times its present size of 4,552,000 acre-feet, is one of the limited number of possibilities for increasing the future water and hydropower supply for the Central Valley Basin and other areas in California. To compare the costs and impacts of this possibility on the environment and the economy with those of other alternatives would require further appraisal and feasibility studies.

There are current overdrafts on ground water in the San Joaquin Valley, a shortage of water in the State Water Project, problems of maintaining water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and water-related fish resource problems from Shasta through the Delta. The severity of the 1976-77 drought was greatly alleviated by the interim supplies made available from the Federal Central Valley and the State Water Projects. However, in the future, when these projects reach their designed capabilities, these interim supplies will not be available.

If studies were begun now, it would probably be a minimum of 20 years before an enlarged Shasta Lake could be placed in operation.