Central Valley’s two major dam projects moving forward
It’s no simple feat to raise a dam. In fact, it’s taken the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 34 years to get from the first feasibility study to expand the dam at Lake Success in Tulare County to finally getting construction underway. The improvements to Lake Success’ Schafer Dam, named after longtime Tule River watermaster Richard L. Schafer, are needed to protect downstream communities in case of a flood, said Calvin Foster, southern operations branch chief for the Corps’ Sacramento District. … On the second dam project, the Corps is also nearly finished with improvements to the two dams on Lake Isabella in Kern County.