Emergency Preparedness Notice Mailed to Residents Located Within the Sweetwater Dam Inundation Zone
I don't know if you have been paying attention, but I recently wrote an article about the Division of Safety of Dams report. They gave our Sweetwater Dam a rather poor mark.
Sweetwater Authority Ignores the Danger
I've been asking questions for the past few years about when the Sweetwater Authority planned to fix the Southern Spillway on the Sweetwater Dam. The spillway is deteriorating and in great need of repair. The question was generally ignored.
Read "DSOD Gives Sweetwater Dam a Downstream Hazard Rating of 'Extremely High'" to see the report and view the photos.
I believe the cost at that time was to be around $7 million. The Sweetwater Authority continued to kick the can down the road as they focused on placing floating solar panels on the surface of the reservoir. According to the Voice of San Diego, that repair has now risen to an estimated cost of $24 million.
A Sweetwater Dam failure would be "Expected to cause considerable loss of human life or would result in an inundation area with a population of 1,000 or more."—DSOD Report
Sweetwater Authority Tries to Cover Their You-Know-What
A few days ago, I found in my mailbox the following information:
It was a very "vanilla" document, downplaying any real danger to the community of Bonita-Sunnyside. SWA does not touch on their part in this scenario and how making that repair could have avoided a possibly serious mishap.
So what is this "inundation zone"?
I decided to dig a little deeper.
What Areas Are Located in the Sweetwater Inundation Zone?
I looked up the Sweetwater Dam Inundation Zone.
The faint-of-heart should not continue reading any further.
"...To show the extent of dam inundation areas for extremely high, high and significant hazard dams and their critical appurtenant structures located within San Diego County. The dataset does not include low hazard dams. The dataset excludes a number of high risk dams for which dam inundation areas were not available. Inundation maps are based on a hypothetical failure of a dam or critical appurtenant structure and the extent of the inundation areas is approximate."—
Remember, the DSOD gave Sweetwater Dam a downstream hazard rating of "Extremely High".
Here is the map of the Sweetwater Dam Inundation Zone:
Can't find your house or street on the map? That's because it's underwater.
The entire map may be found here. The turquoise shade is the Sweetwater Reservoir and the sky-blue shade is the Inundation Zone.
Time to "Pay the Piper"
The time is here for Sweetwater Authority to face the consequences of their actions and accept full responsibility. Unfortunately, it is too late this year to make the repairs on the spillway. If the dam fails—the brunt of their reckless behavior will land on the residents of our community, not on Sweetwater Authority.
Heavy rains are forecast for the end of this year. We can only hope that this year's expected El Niño does not come with so much rain as to cause the dam to fail.
The last big flood was in 1916.
"The consequences for Bonita and the surrounding Sweetwater Valley were catastrophic. On January 27, 1916, the massive volume of water breached the dam's earthen dikes and tore out a 50-foot chunk on one end. The breach turned the Lower Sweetwater Valley into a churning, muddy sea. Bonita’s agricultural lands, including the famous Bonnie Brae Lemon orchards, were completely wiped out. The floodwaters obliterated local infrastructure. It destroyed the railroad tracks, the Sweetwater River bridge, the Friends Church, and the Sweetwater Woman’s Clubhouse (carrying the entire local library out into the San Diego Bay). San Diego County was completely severed from transport and communication for weeks. Bonita had no clean drinking water for three weeks after the main reservoir supply pipelines were shattered."—The Great Flood of 1916
We can only trust that we do not suffer the same fate and consequences one hundred and ten years later.
Written by Susan Heavilin | November 2, 2026 | Sunnyside Common Sense
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