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Vasona Lake Drained, 3/26/24 by Ronald Horii
On 3/26/24, I stopped by Vasona Lake County Park, which is a 152-acre urban park in Los Gatos. It is the most popular and busiest of all the Santa Clara County Parks. The heart of the park is Vasona Lake. It is a popular lake for boating and fishing. After all the rain we've had, I expected the lake to be full. Instead, I was shocked to see that the lake was low. It was the lowest that I've ever seen it. I found out later that it was drained temporarily to allow for routine maintenance of the dam. This is not planned to be a long-term project. They should be done by next week, and the lake will be allowed to fill up again.
There was a story about it on TV: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/vasona-reservoir-los-gatos-drained-repairs/3494386/.
Here's the webpage and map for the park:
https://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/vasona-lake-and-los-gatos-creek-county-parks. There is (or was) a note about the water levels on the website: "Low Water Levels: Valley Water has lowered the water level at Vasona Lake to complete regular maintenance on the Vasona Dam. Valley Water has biologists on-site and stated, “there are no public safety concerns. Our biologists are working during this process to make sure there are no significant issues for fish or amphibians in the lake. Birds are able to move to nearby habitats upstream and downstream of the reservoir. We anticipate the work will be completed this week and the lake will be refilled next week. Thanks to everyone for their patience.” You can share your concerns and questions with Valley Water directly by using their online portal: https://access.valleywater.org/s/" Here's information about the lake from Valley Water: "Vasona dam and reservoir is located on Los Gatos Creek within the town of Los Gatos. Albert August Vollmer, who came to the area in 1887, named the area after a pony he had as a child. Vasona Lake Dam and Reservoir is one of six original reservoirs approved by the voters in 1934. The reservoir capacity is 495 acre-feet. The surface area is 57 acres. The dam was completed in 1935 and new gates were installed in 1997." https://www.valleywater.org/your-water/local-dams-and-reservoirs. It is the smallest of Valley Water's reservoirs. For comparison, Vasona is fed by Los Gatos Creek, which comes from Lexington Reservoir, which has 412 surface acres and a capacity of 19,044 acre-feet. Since this is such an unusual event, I thought I should document the draining of Vasona Lake with these pictures below. Included for comparison are some older pictures of the lake when it was full. Here are more of my pictures of Vasona Lake County Park: http://www.rhorii.com/#Vasona.
On 3/26/24, I stopped by Vasona Lake County Park, which is a 152-acre urban park in Los Gatos. It is the most popular and busiest of all the Santa Clara County Parks. The heart of the park is Vasona Lake. It is a popular lake for boating and fishing. After all the rain we've had, I expected the lake to be full. Instead, I was shocked to see that the lake was low. It was the lowest that I've ever seen it. I found out later that it was drained temporarily to allow for routine maintenance of the dam. This is not planned to be a long-term project. They should be done by next week, and the lake will be allowed to fill up again.
There was a story about it on TV: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/vasona-reservoir-los-gatos-drained-repairs/3494386/.
Here's the webpage and map for the park:
https://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/vasona-lake-and-los-gatos-creek-county-parks. There is (or was) a note about the water levels on the website: "Low Water Levels: Valley Water has lowered the water level at Vasona Lake to complete regular maintenance on the Vasona Dam. Valley Water has biologists on-site and stated, “there are no public safety concerns. Our biologists are working during this process to make sure there are no significant issues for fish or amphibians in the lake. Birds are able to move to nearby habitats upstream and downstream of the reservoir. We anticipate the work will be completed this week and the lake will be refilled next week. Thanks to everyone for their patience.” You can share your concerns and questions with Valley Water directly by using their online portal: https://access.valleywater.org/s/" Here's information about the lake from Valley Water: "Vasona dam and reservoir is located on Los Gatos Creek within the town of Los Gatos. Albert August Vollmer, who came to the area in 1887, named the area after a pony he had as a child. Vasona Lake Dam and Reservoir is one of six original reservoirs approved by the voters in 1934. The reservoir capacity is 495 acre-feet. The surface area is 57 acres. The dam was completed in 1935 and new gates were installed in 1997." https://www.valleywater.org/your-water/local-dams-and-reservoirs. It is the smallest of Valley Water's reservoirs. For comparison, Vasona is fed by Los Gatos Creek, which comes from Lexington Reservoir, which has 412 surface acres and a capacity of 19,044 acre-feet. Since this is such an unusual event, I thought I should document the draining of Vasona Lake with these pictures below. Included for comparison are some older pictures of the lake when it was full. Here are more of my pictures of Vasona Lake County Park: http://www.rhorii.com/#Vasona.
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