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Big Cliff Dam
Big Cliff Dam
	Big Cliff Dam on the North Santiam River
	Location of Big Cliff Dam in Oregon
Country	United States
Location	Linn County–Marion County, Oregon
Coordinates	44°45′3.6″N 122°16′59.16″W / 44.751000°N 122.2831000°W
Purpose	Power
Status	Operational
Construction began	1949
Opening date	1953; 71 years ago
Owner(s)	U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Concrete gravity
Impounds	North Santiam River
Height	191 ft (58 m)
Length	280 ft (85 m)
Elevation at crest	1,212 ft (369 m)
Reservoir
Creates	Big Cliff Lake
Total capacity	6,450 acre⋅ft (7,960,000 m3)
Surface area	128 acres (0.52 km2)
Maximum length	2.8 mi (4.5 km)
Commission date	1953
Turbines	1 x 18 MW Kaplan-type
Installed capacity	18 MW

Big Cliff Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the North Santiam River in the western part of the U.S. state of Oregon.^[3] The dam spans the Linn County–Marion County border in the Oregon Cascades.

The dam's primary functions are flood control, power generation, irrigation, fish habitat, water quality improvement, and recreation. It is one of 13 dams created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Willamette Valley Project which was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1938.^[4]

It was constructed between March 1949 and May 1953^[5] at the same time as Detroit Dam. Big Cliff is 2.7 miles (4.3 km) river distance below Detroit Dam at river mile 47 of the North Santiam River.

Big Cliff smooths river flow resulting from power generation fluctuations of Detroit Dam, a practice known as river re-regulation. Big Cliff Reservoir, primarily known as Big Cliff Lake, has daily depth variations of up to 24 feet (7.3 m).^[3]

Big Cliff can generate up to 18 megawatts of power.^[3]

The dams' operators try to keep the water temperature in the 50 to 59 °F (10 to 15 °C) range for ideal fish habitat by mixing water from the top of Detroit Lake with water from the bottom.^[6]

References

^ "Detroit Lake Temperature and Suspended Sediment Model". U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
^ "Appendix A - Portland District - U.S. Army" (PDF). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Portland District. p. A-6. Retrieved 10 January 2015.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ ^a ^b ^c "Big Cliff". U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Retrieved 2013-08-27.
^ "Willamette BiOp". Federal Caucus. Retrieved 2013-08-27.
^ Jamie Wyant (2012-06-12). "The Detroit and Big Cliff dams". North Santiam Watershed Council. Retrieved 2013-08-27.
^ Alex Paul (2009-08-04). "Corps of Engineers making repairs on Big Cliff Dam gates". Albany Democrat-Herald. Retrieved 2013-08-27. Echols said, "For a while, the water temperature got to about 68 degrees and we would like it to be in the 50s. We were able to mitigate that by running water from the power house, which is very cold, and mixing it in Big Cliff reservoir. That helped balance the temperature."