A unique wonder key to Napa County water management may be to attract onlookers for weeks, thanks to a series of atmospheric rivers continuing to raid Northern California.
Lake Berryessa’s famous “Hole of Glory” spillway is located about 80 miles north of San Francisco.
Technically, drainage pipes have been used only 25 times in its nearly 70-year history, according to the Solano County Water Supply Bureau, which uses water from the reservoir.
“It started overflowing at 6:15 pm on February 4 and we will see another atmospheric river hitting us on Thursday, so the lake will likely continue to overflow for a few weeks,” Chris Lee said. General Manager of Solano County Water Supply Bureau.
The charming water management design is known as the passive spillway, and was last used in 2019 and 2017, Lee said. Prior to that, it has not been active since 2005, Lee said, the history embodies the history of California’s increasingly dramatic wet and wet seasons. – Attributable to climate change.
When this happens, the lake looks like it has a huge hole in its hole, where it pulls a circle of water inward. The top of the pipe spans 72 feet and releases the water to 200 feet straight to Putah Creek.
“It’s definitely worth a look,” Lee said. “I’m lucky to see it a few times. …It’s not that common.”
Lee said he knew only two other similar passive spillways in California, one on Trinity Lake in Trinity County and the other on the Whiskey Town Lake in Shasta County, which also spilled last week.
The New York Times wrote for the first time about the fascinating drainage ditch of Lake Beressa, interviewing Peter Kilkus, who was there after the spillway was opened a few hours ago.
“People are taking pictures and videos, just awe,” Kirkus, editor of Lake Beressa News, told the newspaper.
Lake Beressa is owned and operated by the U.S. Reclamation Agency, but it provides most of the water through drinking and irrigation in Sonoma County, Lee said.
According to Napa Valley, the reservoir was created after federal officials built the Monticello Dam in Putah Creek in the 1950s and has been providing water to the Greater Bay Area and Hydropower. Because the dam was built in a canyon that was too narrow to support a typical spillway, officials erected unique engineering functions so that drainage was still allowed.
Although the lake with the glory hole is marked by a buoy, it continues to attract curious bystanders like gravity. Officials urge audiences and lake leisureists to be careful not to approach the glory hole. A woman died in 1997 while being inhaled into a pipe.
“We want people to have the best judgment,” Lee said.
