El Capitan Dam

Proposed Lakeside Sand Mine Owner Sues City of San Diego for Damages From Water Release at El Capitan Dam

91-year-old dam is too dangerous for city to keep reservoir filled, leading to massive water waste and now, damage claims downstream
 
By Karen Pearlman
 
Sept. 1, 2025 (Lakeside) – A lawsuit against the city of San Diego is highlighting safety and management concerns at the El Capitan Dam and Reservoir (photo, left, by Billy Ortiz).
 
The suit is also dredging up residents’ longstanding fight against sand mining in Lakeside’s picturesque El Monte Valley.
 
Even deeper, it shines a floodlight on failure to make the dam safe, which could not only protect public safety, but also prevent wasting billions of gallons of water that the city currently must release from this and other reservoirs to prevent disastrous dam breaks.
 
The old earthen dam is considered one of the most dangerous in the region because of concerns about water overflow, major flooding and catastrophic loss of life. It sits near the site of a proposed sand mining area in the El Monte Valley.

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CLOSURES AT THREE LOCAL LAKES PREVENTED

By Miriam Raftery
 
June 25, 2024 (San Diego) – Following an outcry by rural residents and Supervisor Joel Anderson, the City of San Diego has revised its budget to eliminate proposed temporary closures of the reservoir at El Capitan in Lakeside, Lake Sutherland in Ramona, and Lake Hodges in Escondido.
 
In a post on the Friends of the San Diego Lakes Facebook page today, Supervisor Anderson states, “WE DID IT! WE STOPPED THE CLOSURES of EL CAP, SUTHERLAND AND HODGES IN 2025. LOTSA PEOPLE TO THANK FOR THIS.”
 
Though located in the County unincorporated areas, the reservoirs are owned by the city of San Diego. 

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WATER RELEASED FROM EL CAPITAN RESERVOIR IN LAKESIDE AS PRECAUTION

 

By Miriam Raftery

File photo: El Captain reservoir and dam, by BIlly Ortiz

August 20, 2023 (Lakeside) – The City of San Diego has announced that today it has begun releasing water from El Capitan Reservoir in Lakeside, in anticipation of a potential spill due to Tropical Storm Hilary. 

Flowing water will be visible downstream from the dam in El Monte Valley and beyond. The notice is posted on the city’s webpage for El Capitan Reservoir.

El Capitan is an aging dam made of rocks, built in 1934. The dam is 237 feet tall and 1,170 feet wide, but no longer meets state standards, ECM warned back in 2017.

The aging dam is considered in poor condition and would pose a high risk of loss of life downstream if it were kept full and should rupture. Last year, NPR reported that El Capitan dam “is capable of storing over 36 billion gallons of water — enough to supply every resident in San Diego for most of a year. Today, it's three-quarters empty — intentionally kept low because of concerns it could fail under the strain of too much water.”


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NINE DAMS IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY RANKED BELOW SATISFACTORY ON SAFETY, NEWLY RELEASED STATE DATA REVEALS

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Billy Ortiz: El Capitan Dam in Lakeside, ranked “fair” for safety, has an “extremely high “downstream hazard status for potential loss of life and property damage.

September 2, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) - The State of California on Friday released data on dam safety in California which found nine percent of dams statewide fall below satisfactory and could pose potential hazards in severe storms or earthquakes—including nine dams in San Diego County.


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