The State of Los Padres Dam - November 2007

Los Padres dam was built around 1949 to hold about 3000 acre feet of water. Over the years this dam has been silted in to now hold (2007) about 1300 acre feet of water. Currently, November 20, 2007, there is about 600 acre feet of water in the dam as it releases 3.7 cfs to protect the Steelhead in downstream operations. This dam could be easily be increased in size without the construction of a new dam. Why have we not explored this potential???????