| Lake Hemet | |
|---|---|
| Location | Riverside County, California |
| Lake type | reservoir |
| Primary inflows | San Jacinto River |
| Primary outflows | San Jacinto River |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface area | 1.7 km² |
| Water volume | 1 km³ |
| Shore length1 | 19 km |
| Surface elevation | 1,323 m |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Lake Hemet is a water storage reservoir located in the San Jacinto Mountains in Riverside County, California, with a capacity of 260 billion US gallons (980,000,000 m3) of water. It was created in 1895 with the construction of the Hemet Dam, and is owned and operated by the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District (LHMWD).
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13 miles (23 km) SW of Palm Springs, California, United States
Lake Hemet is an artificial lake in the San Jacinto Mountains, 4,340 ft (1,323 m) above sea level. Lake Hemet is part of the San Bernardino National Forest. Lake Hemet has a surface area of 420 acres (1.7 km²) of water and 12 miles (19 km) of shoreline. Fishing is the primary attraction to the lake, which is stocked with rainbow trout, channel catfish, bluegill and Largemouth bass. Other Lake Hemet activities include boating, picnicking, hiking, and camping in the surrounding areas.
LHMWD provides water from Lake Hemet to a geographically diverse service area in Riverside County, including portions of the cities of Hemet and San Jacinto, and to the isolated but growing 4,500-foot (1,400 m) high San Jacinto Mountain community of Garner Valley.
LHMWD's customers are represented by a publicly-elected board of five directors in 5 divisions, representing approximately 13,800 domestic and 51 agricultural customers within a 26-square mile (67 km²) service area.
Service connections
Length of Lake Hemet Municipal Water District Pipeline
Development of the San Jacinto Valley can be traced to 1887, with the formation of the Lake Hemet Water Company and the Hemet Land Company by Edward L. Mayberry, his wealthy San Francisco friend, William F. Whittier, and their partners. These two companies allowed the partnership to acquire land and water rights from the San Jacinto Valley to the west end of Garner Valley in the San Jacinto Mountains.
Lake Hemet Water Company placed the first stone of the Hemet Dam on January 6, 1891. When this arched masonry structure was completed in 1895 at a height of 122.5 feet (37.3 m), it was the largest solid masonry dam in the world—a title it would retain until the construction of Roosevelt Dam in Arizona in 1911. In 1923, the Hemet dam was raised to a height of 135 feet (41 m).
LHMWD was founded on Sept. 27, 1955 to take over the activities of the Lake Hemet Water Company, purchasing the Lake Hemet water system with funds raised through a bond initiative.