| Savage Dam | |
| Coordinates: | 32.6106°N -116.9247°W |
| Country: | United States |
| Location: | San Diego County, California |
| Status: | In use |
| Owner: | City of San Diego |
| Dam Type: | Concrete arch gravity |
| Dam Height: | 149feet |
| Dam Length: | 750feet |
| Dam Crosses: | Otay River |
| Res Name: | Lower Otay Reservoir |
| Res Capacity Total: | 49510acre.ft |
| Res Catchment: | 101.2sqmi |
| Res Surface: | 1090acres |
| Plant Hydraulic Head: | 120feet |
Savage Dam is a dam across the Otay River in the San Ysidro Mountains of southwestern San Diego County, California. It is a concrete arch gravity structure 149feet high,[1] and serves to store water from the San Diego Aqueduct's third pipeline for backup municipal uses in the San Diego metropolitan area. It is just over 6miles southeast of Chula Vista and 4miles north of the United States-Mexico border. The dam is named in honor of H. N. Savage, who directed its construction.[2]
The dam was originally completed in 1897 as an earthfill and steel structure called the Otay Dam by the Southern California Mountain Water Company to provide water storage. However, in 1916, heavy rains supposedly brought on by Charles Hatfield, a "rainmaker", hired by the city of San Diego to put an end to a drought, caused the dam to burst. The failure sent a wall of water 40feet high downstream, destroying buildings and bridges, and washing thousands of tons of sediment and wreckage into San Diego Bay.[3] Eleven Japanese American farmers were killed.[4] The dam was rebuilt as Savage Dam in 1918, and has functioned properly since.[5]