Removing Matilija Dam:
- Why Remove Matilija Dam?
- Objectives
- Benefits from Removal
- Impacts: Habitat
- Impacts: Sediment
- Matilija Dam spilling
Final Design:
- Project Description
- Sediment Management
- Slurry Disposal
- Levees
- Bridges
- Robles Diversion modifications
- Arundo (giant reed) management
- Our Comments
Feasibility Study:
Early Progress:
Background Information:
About the Matilija Coalition:
Drilling Sediment Core Samples
Matilija Dam holds back over 6 million cubic yards of silt, sand, gravel, cobble, and boulders. Handling this sediment is the primary technical issue with the removal of the obsolete concrete dam.
This summer, a Bureau of Reclamation geological team collected fifteen sediment core samples from behind the dam. Eight samples were drilled from a floating barge in the reservoir area behind Matilija Dam, and seven were drilled on the dry delta upstream of the reservoir. Analysis of these core samples will determine the distribution of the sediments trapped behind the dam, one of the first steps in the Feasibility Study now underway.
In order to drill within the lake, a barge was lifted onto the water in sections and assembled to provide a mobil floating drill platform.
Images copyright 2001
A. Paul Jenkin