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Spring Creek Dam

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Spring Creek Dam

Spring Creek Debris Dam is an earthfill dam on Spring Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River, in Shasta County in the U.S. state of California. Completed in 1963, the dam, maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, serves primarily to collect severe acid mine drainage stemming from the Iron M

ountain Mine. The dam forms the Spring Creek Reservoir, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) long. Spring Creek and South Fork Spring Creek flow into the reservoir from a 16-square-mile (41 km2) watershed. The dam is directly upstream from the city of Keswick, California and the Keswick Reservoir. The operation is part of the Trinity River Division of the Central Valley Project. The primary purpose of the Spring Creek Dam was to collect acid mine drainage from the old Iron Mountain Mine, which was heavily polluting Spring Creek and its tributaries. The dam was built in response to these pollutants that were contaminating the Sacramento River, the primary water supply for millions of Californians. Although the watershed is small in comparison to that of the Sacramento River, the stream is among the most polluted and acidic in the world. The dam and reservoir, along with other treatment structures built...

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