| New Exchequer Dam | |
|---|---|
New Exchequer Dam and Lake McClure viewed from the air |
|
| Country | United States |
| Location | California |
| Coordinates | [1] |
| Construction began | 1964 |
| Opening date | 1967 |
| Owner(s) | Merced Irrigation District |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Rock-faced earthfill |
| Height | 490 ft (150 m) |
| Length | 1,220 ft (370 m) |
| Crest elevation | 879 ft (268 m) |
| Impounds | Merced River |
| Spillways | Service, 6x radial gates + ungated emergency |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Lake McClure |
| Capacity | 1,024,600 acre feet (1.2638 km3) |
| Catchment area | 1,037 sq mi (2,690 km2) |
| Surface area | 7,296 acres (2,953 ha) |
| Normal elevation | 867 ft (264 m) |
| Reservoir length | 19 mi (31 km) |
| Power station | |
| Hydraulic head | 437 ft (133 m) |
| Installed capacity | 94.5 MW |
New Exchequer Dam is an earthfill dam on the Merced River in central California. It is mainly used by the Merced Irrigation District (MID) to provide irrigation water to several hundred square miles of the San Joaquin Valley surrounding the line of the Merced River.
The dam was built to increase the storage provided by the original concrete-arch Exchequer Dam, built in 1926 at a cost of $16 million. While the original dam could hold just 281,000 acre·ft (0.347 km3), the new dam more than tripled the volume of stored water to 1,024,600 acre·ft (1.2638 km3). Construction on the new dam began in 1964 and was completed in 1967. The reservoir was originally called Exchequer Reservoir for a town now submerged under its waters, but was renamed Lake McClure in honor of Wilbur F. McClure, the State Engineer of California during construction.[2]
In recent years, MID has proposed raising the spillway gates of the dam, which would provide up to 70,000 acre·ft (0.086 km3) of additional storage. However, this has met with controversy because it would result in part-time flooding of a portion of the Merced River designated Wild and Scenic.[3]