Irvine Lake is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

in Orange County,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It is on

Santiago Creek Santiago Creek is a major watercourse in Orange County in the U.S. state of California. About long, it drains most of the northern Santa Ana Mountains and is a tributary to the Santa Ana River. It is one of the longest watercourses entirely withi ...

, located in

Silverado, California Silverado is an unincorporated community in Silverado Canyon, which is located in the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County, California. Portions of the town sit on a former Mexican land grant Rancho Lomas de Santiago. Silverado is loc ...

, east of the city of Irvine and close to

Irvine Regional Park Irvine Park in Orange, California is a park that became Orange County's first regional park in 1897. and It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and includes six contributing buildings, four contributing structures and ...

. The reservoir is currently operated by the Serrano Water District and

OC Parks Orange County Parks, more commonly abbreviated to OC Parks, is a government agency that maintains and oversees the public parks of Orange County, California. The agency operates both natural and manmade parks of the region. OC Parks is responsi ...

. Access to the lake is via Santiago Canyon Road, the road leading from Orange to Silverado. The

Cleveland National Forest Cleveland National Forest encompasses 460,000 acres (), mostly of chaparral, with a few riparian areas. A warm dry mediterranean climate prevails over the forest. It is the southernmost U.S. National Forest of California. It is administered by ...

is on the northeast side of the lake.

History

The lake is formed by the

Santiago Dam Santiago Dam (also known as Santiago Creek Dam) is an earth/rockfill dam across Santiago Creek in Orange County, in the U.S. state of California, forming Irvine Lake. The earth dam and its reservoir serve for flood control and recreational purp ...

at the lake's north end, which was built between 1929 and 1931, and was originally called the Santiago Reservoir. The dam was built by the

Irvine Company The Irvine Company LLC is an American private company focused on real estate development. It is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with a large portion of its operations centered in and around Irvine, California, a planned city of more ...

and the Serrano Water District (known as Serrano Irrigation District at the time); it is now owned by the Serrano Water District and the

Irvine Ranch Water District Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) is a California Special District formed in 1961 and incorporated under thCalifornia water code IRWD headquarters are located in Irvine, California. IRWD offers the following services: potable water sales, sewe ...

and operated by Serrano Water District in conjunction with

. The lake provides drinking water to

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway station ...

and some parts of

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, and provides supplementary irrigation water to neighboring ranches. Stocked with

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

, and

crappie Crappies () are two species of North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Pomoxis'' in the family Centrarchidae (sunfishes). Both species of crappies are popular game fish among recreational anglers. Etymology The genus name ''Pomoxis' ...

, the lake fishery opened to the public in 1941. The land around the lake is owned by the Irvine Company, which leases the fishing, boating, and camping concessions to SWD Recreation Inc. The lake had not been full from 2011 onward due to an extended drought, and its levels had been steadily decreasing for years. In September 2016, it was at 13 percent of capacity. By August 2019, the lake was naturally refilled due to an unusual amount of rain. The amount of area covered in water went from 2,700

acre-feet The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows. An acr ...

to 15,715 acre-feet in a one year span. In 2016, Irvine Lake was closed to the public due to financial disagreements between the Serrano Water District and the Irvine Company. In August 2019, the lake was successfully reopened to the public for shore fishing and other activities after OC Parks, the Serrano Water District, and the Irvine Company came to a one-year agreement to resume operations.

References

External links

IRWD's page on Irvine LakeSWD's page on Irvine LakeRecreational information
the website of the concessionaire {{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine Parks in Orange County, California Santa Ana River Reservoirs in Orange County, California Recreational fishing in the United States Reservoirs in California Reservoirs in Southern California

History

See also

References

External links