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Water-Year Summary for Site 11299000

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  • Water-Year Summary reports summarize a year of hydrologic data in a printer-friendly format.
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Available Parameters
00054 Reservoir storage(Obs.,Ins.,Obs.,Obs.,Obs.,Obs.)  

Water year 2023: 2022-10-01 to 2023-09-30
 

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USGS Water-Year Summary 2023
11299000 New Melones Reservoir near Sonora, CA
LOCATION - Lat 37°57'04", long 120°31'21" referenced to North American Datum of 1927, in NW 1/4 SE 1/4 sec.11, T.1 N., R.13 E., Tuolumne County, CA, Hydrologic Unit 18040010, at right abutment of New Melones Dam on Stanislaus River, 0.1 mi downstream from the old Melones Dam, and 7.6 mi southwest of Sonora.
DRAINAGE AREA - 904 mi².
REVISIONS HISTORY - WSP 1930: Drainage area.
SURFACE-WATER RECORDS
PERIOD OF RECORD - 1926 (year-end contents only, published in WSP 1315-A), June 1927 to current year. Prior to October 1970, published as "Melones Reservoir at Melones Dam." October 1970 to September 1978, published as "Melones Lake near Sonora."
GAGE - Water-stage recorder. Datum of gage is NGVD of 1929 (levels by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). Prior to Feb. 28, 1961, nonrecording gage, and Mar. 1, 1961, to Nov. 26, 1978, water-stage recorder at site on left side of old Melones Dam, at same datum.
COOPERATION - Records, including discharge through New Melones Powerplant (station 11299200), were provided by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
REMARKS - Records for 2014-2016 water years were not provided. Reservoir is formed by earth and rock-fill dam completed in November 1978. Dam is downstream from the original concrete dam which was completed in December 1926. Usable capacity, 2,420,000 acre-ft, between elevations 543.0 ft, invert entrance to outlet tunnel, and 1,088.0 ft, gross pool elevation. No dead storage. When elevation is above 808.0 ft, water is released through New Melones Powerplant to Tulloch Reservoir (station 11299995). Records for the 1971 water year represent contents at 1630 hours. Records, including extremes, represent total contents at 2400 hours. See schematic diagram of Stanislaus River Basin available from the California Water Science Center.
EXTREMES FOR PERIOD OF RECORD - (Subsequent to completion of New Melones Dam in 1978) Maximum contents, 2,400,000 acre-ft, July 8-10, 1983, elevation, 1,086.42 ft; minimum since first filled in July 1983, 86,630 acre-ft, Oct. 1, 1992, elevation, 721.15 ft.