El Dorado Forebay Dam - FERC Dam Safety Project

The El Dorado Forebay Dam and Reservoir acts as storage for domestic and irrigation water supply, and for hydroelectric power generation.

The dam itself had been performing reliably since its construction in 1923; however, it no longer met current dam safety standards and had lost nearly one third of its original volume capacity. It was determined that the site needed to undergo design and construction improvements.

KGS Group’s work involved a comprehensive background review of key dam safety documents, along with evaluations of design, construction and analyses of record. This included preparing potential incident reports, failure mode analyses, conducting inspections and meeting with federal commission officials to address comments.

KGS Group’s recommended improvements included:

• Improved availability and reliability of water supply from Forebay
• A safer dam that meets all modern safety standards
• Grading, paving and accessibility improvements to the Forebay day use area
• Realignment and improvement to the walking trail along the north side of Forebay Reservoir