SEARSVILLE DAM
was built in 1892 and is located on San Francisquito Creek, which historically supported a run of steelhead in several upstream tributaries. The dam does not provide potable water or hydropower.
Its primary use is providing irrigation water to the Stanford University campus and some flood control benefits to the downstream cities of Palo Alto,
Menlo Park, and East Palo Alto.
Severely altered flows also impact rivers below dams. Too often, outdated flow regimes significantly degrade river and riparian ecosystems and fail to maintain healthy downstream habitat. Many dams operate under a cycle of capturing high winter flows and then releasing a steady minimum base flow from the dam throughout the spring, summer and fall.