Water spills into Lake Berryessa’s iconic Glory Hole

Last Friday, for the first time in 10 years, water spilled into the Lake Berryessa Glory Hole, marking the lake at full capacity. 

by Dom Pruett

After a drought-ridden 10-year period, Friday water finally spilled (on its own) into Lake Berryessa’s Glory Hole, bringing an end to the longest gap between spills in the lake’s history.
“Surprising,” said Solano County Water Agency General Manager Roland Sanford. “Given where we started, nobody initially thought it could spill this year.” Sanford’s shock is warranted. In October of 2016, Lake Berryessa was just half full. In fact, October 26 recorded the lake level at 398.6 feet.
“It wasn’t until January when we had those heavy storms that we thought it had a chance,” Sanford explained. On Jan. 28, the lake level was a modest 427.3 feet.
By 7 a.m. Friday, thanks in large part to another wave of rain, Berryessa was officially full with the lake level at 440.01 feet.
With the lake at full capacity, the Solano Irrigation District, which is in charge of the operations at the Monticello Dam, continued to execute their routine procedures.
“We’re continuing to monitor elevation and the lake levels,” said SID Water and Power Operations Manager Kevin King.
A week ago, as water slowly gravitated toward the top of the Glory Hole, SID turned on all three of the Monticelo dam’s 11.5 megawatt-powerhouse generators, which are currently releasing almost 100 cubic feet of water from the reservoir and into Putah Creek, as of Friday evening. At the same time, King added that there is roughly 50 cubic feet of water going into the spillway.
“One cubic foot per second is about 450 gallons per minute,” King explained. With the reservoir full, there is no more water going into storage.
“If the powerhouse weren’t on, water would be running through the spillway without any benefit,” said King.
According to Sanford, the lake level is still rising, with water expected to continue to spill over until at least next weekend.
“It will depend on the weather,” said Sanford.
But while many locals are exhilarated about a full Lake Berryessa, which provides irrigation and water for Solano County, the nearby scare at the Oroville Dam is making many unnerved.
To King, no locals should be worried, for now at least.
“We still have quite a ways to go before there is any flooding downstream,” said King of the release into the Putah Creek. “It’s nothing close to what’s going on in Oroville.”