List of largest reservoirs of California



This is a list of the largest reservoirs, or man-made lakes, in the U.S. state of California. All fifty-three reservoirs that contain over 100000 acre.ft of water at maximum capacity are listed. This includes those formed by raising the level of natural lakes, such as at Lake Tahoe. Most large reservoirs in California are owned by the federal Bureau of Reclamation and to a lesser extent the Army Corps of Engineers, many serving the Central Valley Project or State Water Project. Smaller ones are often run by county water agencies or irrigation and flood control districts.

The state has more than one thousand major reservoirs, of which the largest two hundred have a combined capacity of over 41000000 acre.ft. Most large reservoirs in California are located in the central and northern portions of the state, especially along the large and flood-prone rivers of the Central Valley. Eleven reservoirs have a storage capacity greater than or equal to 1000000 acre.ft; all of these except one are in or on drainages that feed into the Central Valley. The largest single reservoir in California is Shasta Lake, with a full volume of more than 4552000 acre.ft.