The Bureau of Reclamation today released a Draft Feasibility Report and Preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement ) for the Shasta Lake Water Resources Investigation examining the potential to enlarge Shasta Dam and Reservoir to achieve “multiple water resources purposes.”

The Shasta Investigation is one of five surface water storage studies included in what is know as the 2000 CALFED Bay-Delta Programmatic Record of Decision.

Shasta Dam is 602 feet high with a current reservoir capacity of 4.55 million acre-feet. Reclamation completed construction of the dam and reservoir in 1944 for flood control, irrigation water supply, municipal and industrial water supply, hydropower generation, fish and wildlife conservation and navigation purposes.

The draft documents address the potential impacts, costs and benefits of the No Action alternative and five action alternatives evaluated to date.

Reclamation and cooperating agencies are analyzing alternative dam raises from 6.5 to 18.5 feet and corresponding increases of reservoir storage from 256,000 to 634,000 acre feet. The documents are available on Reclamation’s website, http://www.usbr.gov/mp/slwri/documents.html.