California May Release Water as Reservoir Hits Historic Milestone

Lake Oroville has reached full capacity for the third year in a row, a first-ever milestone for California’s second-largest reservoir, and now California Department of Water Resources (DWR) officials are monitoring the lake’s water levels.

Adjustments to the lake’s water releases might be necessary with it at full capacity, a DWR spokesperson told Newsweek.

Why It Matters

Many of California’s lakes and reservoirs reached concerningly low levels in the summer of 2022 after a years-long drought, including Lake Oroville. However, since the winter of 2022-23, the lake’s water levels have significantly recovered.

Above-average snowfall in the winters of 2023 and 2024 helped the reservoir recover. Although less snow fell this year, the lake reached its full capacity when the winter snowpack started to melt and supplemented its levels.

What to Know

As of Monday of this week, Lake Oroville was at 100 percent capacity, which is 122 percent of its historical average for this time of year.

Based on water level history, Lake Orville will likely begin declining later this month. Over the past several years, the reservoir has followed a pattern of rising from late fall to mid- or late June, when its levels start to decline.

As of Tuesday, the lake’s water levels were around 900 feet in elevation, which is full capacity. This is on par with its water levels during early June in 2023 and 2024. However, it is nearly 130 feet higher than the levels during June of 2022, when severe drought gripped the Golden State.

Now that the lake is at capacity, DWR officials might have to conduct releases through the lake’s dam to manage the water levels.

Such releases, also called flood control operations, are federally required of the DWR from October through April, which is California’s wet season. The regulations “establish a set storage space that is reserved to capture inflows from rain and future snowmelt while protecting downstream communities from damaging flood events through coordinated releases,” a DWR spokesperson previously told Newsweek.

When water is released from Lake Oroville, some of it is used locally for agricultural benefits and the rest flows south through the State Water Project system, where it will “reduce salinity effects in the Delta, provide irrigation for crops in the Central Valley and eventually makes its way to Southern California,” the spokesperson previously said.

What People Are Saying

A DWR spokesperson told Newsweek: “Lake Oroville is currently at full capacity. DWR is monitoring inflows and demands and will make adjustments to releases as needed. DWR continues to optimize water storage at Lake Oroville while meeting environmental requirements and allowing for carryover storage into next year.”

DWR Director Karla Nemeth said in a press release: “It’s great news that our state’s snowpack has recovered from several weeks of extremely dry conditions in the heart of our winter storm season. However, it’s not a wet year across the entire Sierra Nevada. The north has great snowpack, but snowpack is less than average in the central and southern part of the mountain range. That snowpack ultimately flows to the Delta, and the regional disparity affects how much water the State Water Project will be able to deliver.”

What Happens Next

Lake Oroville’s water levels reaching capacity marks a historic milestone for California’s second-largest reservoir. However, water levels are expected to fall throughout the summer.