Copco Lake


Copco Lake is an artificial lake on the Klamath River in Siskiyou County, California, near the Oregon border in the United States. The lake's waters are impounded by the Copco Number 1 Dam, which was completed in 1922. COPCO was an acronym referring to the California Oregon Power Company, which merged into Pacific Power and Light in 1961, and is now known as Pacificorp.
Copco Number 1 and Number 2 Dams are two of the four dams in the Klamath River Hydroelectric Project which have been proposed for removal. As of February 2016, the states of Oregon and California, the dam owners, federal regulators and other parties reached an agreement to remove all four dams by the year 2020, pending approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The plan was delayed in 2020 due to conditions placed on the project by FERC.

Copco Number 1 Dam

Copco Number 1 Dam is a gravity dam long and high, with of freeboard. PacifiCorp owns the dam.

Copco Number 2 Dam

Copco Number 2 Dam is a gated diversion dam located just below Dam No. 1. The dam diverts most of the flow of the river, about, through a flume and tunnels to a 27 megawatt powerhouse downstream, on the upstream end of Iron Gate Reservoir. The diversion bypasses a canyon section of the Klamath River that historically consisted of some steep rapids. The dam is required to maintain a minimum release of to prevent this stretch from being entirely dewatered. Because it has no effective storage capacity, Dam No. 2 depends entirely on the regulated flows released from Copco Lake.

Recreation

The lake is used for kayaking, fishing, swimming, windsurfing, power boating, and sailing, and the surrounding area has facilities for picnicking and hiking.