page_title: Carmel River
section_title: Dams and reservoirs
hierarchical_section_title: Carmel River / Dams and reservoirs
caption_attribution_description: Garland Ranch Regional Park in Carmel Valley, Monterey County, California, USA.
context_page_description: The Carmel River is a 36 mi river on the Central Coast of California in Monterey County that originates in the Ventana Wilderness Area of the Santa Lucia Mountains. The river flows northwest through the Carmel Valley with its mouth at the Pacific Ocean south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, at Carmel Bay. It is often considered the northern boundary of Big Sur. The Carmel River drains a watershed of about 255 square miles.
context_section_description: The Carmel River had three dams, with their reservoirs used for drinking water and having severe sediment buildup.
  The San Clemente Dam, built in 1921, was located 18.5 miles (29.8 km) upstream from the ocean, and once provided drinking water throughout the Monterey Peninsula. It was the second of three dams built on the Carmel River, preceded by the Old Carmel River Dam built in the 1880s and followed by the Los Padres Dam in 1949. The San Clemente Dam had an original capacity of 1,450 acre⋅ft (1,790,000 m³), but as of 2002, the capacity had fallen to less than 150 acre feet (190,000 m³) because it was 90 percent silted up. 
  State regulators declared in 1991 that it was in danger of collapsing in an earthquake and spilling the 40 million US gallons (150,000 m³) of water trapped behind its crumbling walls. In January 2010 an agreement was reached with the California American Water Company to dig a new half-mile channel to bypass and strand the sediment behind the dam at a cost of $84 million, beginning in 2013. The Carmel River Reroute
  and San Clemente Dam Removal Project (CRRDR) was completed at the end of 2015, opening up 6.5 miles (10.5 km) of historic steelhead rainbow trout habitat on the river mainstem, plus access to three named tributary creeks: San Clemente Creek, Pine Creek and Cachagua Creek.
  The Los Padres Dam, built in 1949, is located 25 miles (40 km) upstream from the ocean. Its original capacity was 3,030 acre feet (3,740,000 m³), but as of 2008, its capacity was only 1,775 acre feet (2,189,000 m³).
  The oldest dam on the river, which was used as a turnout for a water pipeline, was located approximately 2,000 feet (610 m) downstream of San Clemente Dam. It was removed as part of the San Clemente Dam Removal Project. This first dam and associated pipeline was constructed ca. 1880 by Charles Crocker and the Pacific Improvement Company with a labor force that included approximately 700 Chinese workers.  This small dam, which has been referred to as the "Chinese Dam" and "Old Carmel River Dam," was built using hewn and mortared granite blocks.  A cast-iron pipe 25 miles (40 km) long and 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter was used to deliver water from the dam to the first Del Monte Hotel on the Monterey Peninsula, crossing the Carmel River five times on its way.  Remnants of the original iron pipe still exist along Carmel Valley Road, but no records have been found to show where the pipe crossed the river.
caption: Carmel River - Garland Ranch Regional Park
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