Rimrock Lake
| Rimrock Lake | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view of Tieton Dam and Rimrock Lake from the downstream side of the dam. | |
  Rimrock Lake | |
| Location | Yakima County, Washington, United States |
| Coordinates | 46°39′23″N 121°07′46″W / 46.65639°N 121.12944°W |
| Type | reservoir |
| Primary inflows | Tieton River |
| Primary outflows | Tieton River |
| Catchment area | 187 sq mi (480 km2) |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 6 mi (9.7 km) |
| Max. width | 1 mi (1.6 km) |
| Water volume | 0.0586 cu mi (0.244 km3) |
| Surface elevation | 2,926 ft (892 m) |
Rimrock Lake is a lake along the course of the Tieton River, in Yakima County, Washington state, US.
The lake is used as a storage reservoir for the Yakima Project, an irrigation project run by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. An impoundment of the Tieton River, Rimrock Lake's capacity and discharge is controlled by Tieton Dam, a 319-foot (97 m) high structure built in 1925. Rimrock Lake's active capacity is 198,000 acre⋅ft (244 million m3).[1]
Upstream from the lake, the Tieton River is impounded by Clear Creek Dam, another element of the Yakima Project. About 8 miles (13 km) downstream from Rimrock Lake the Tieton River is tapped by the Tieton Diversion Dam, supplying water to the Tieton Main Canal. The canal supplies irrigation water to the Tieton Division of the Yakima Project, with excess and agricultural runoff draining into Ahtanum Creek, west of Yakima.[1]
Near the lakes are the communities of Rimrock and Silver Beach. The lake flooded the site of a Yakama village named Miya’wax and portions of the Yakama-Cowlitz Trail which connected the Yakama people east of the Cascade Range to the Cowlitz people west of the mountains.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Yakima Project Archived 2015-03-07 at the Wayback Machine, United States Bureau of Reclamation.
- ^ Bentley, Judy (Summer 2018). "Nine thousand years on the Yakama-Cowlitz Trail". Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History. 32 (2): 4–12.
External links
[edit]- "Tieton Dam". United States Bureau of Reclamation.
- "Rimrock Lake". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
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