Santa Margarita Lake
Santa Margarita Lake, also called Salinas Reservoir, is a lake several miles southeast of the town of Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County, California. The lake was created by the building of Salinas Dam on the southern end of the Salinas River, very close to the river's origin in the Santa Lucia Range.

The dam was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1941 to provide water for Camp San Luis Obispo. It now provides the city of San Luis Obispo with a portion of its drinking water. The city also uses water from Lake Nacimiento and water from Whale Rock Reservoir in Cayucos. The lake is relatively small, with a capacity of . Since it is a municipal water source, human contact is prohibited. Boating, fishing and rowing are popular activities on the lake and there are camping sites on the shore. The lake is home to the San Luis Obispo Rowing Club.

The lake is home to largemouth bass, catfish, carp, black crappie and various sunfish.

There are dirt roads that provide access to almost the entire perimeter of the lake. There is a 15-mile per hour (24 km/h) speed limit, as the roads are bumpy and vehicles kick up a lot of dust, even at slow speeds. In addition, many visitors park on the side of the road to fish. The default speed limit on the lake itself is 5 miles per hour (8 km/h), but boats can travel up to 30 miles (48 km/h) per hour in certain areas, depending on conditions.

There is a proposal to raise the dam by 19 feet (8 m) with the addition of a spillway gate, which was part of the original design. The loss of trees from the additional capacity has been a major concern. In the area to be flooded there are 1,639 coast live oaks, 633 blue oaks, 198 valley oaks and 469 gray pines. The loss of oak trees is of ecological concern, since oak trees in the area are already contending with sudden oak death.
Q23397
lake
Concept
Q3476162
Santa Margarita
LOC
Q49014
San Luis Obispo County, California
LOC
Q1161673
Salinas River
LOC
Q1422677
Santa Lucia Range
LOC
Q12323
dam
Concept
Q1049334
United States Army Corps of Engineers
PER
Q5027560
Camp San Luis Obispo
LOC
Q49012
San Luis Obispo
LOC
Q7892
drinking water
Concept
Q7335172
Whale Rock Reservoir
LOC
Q1052054
Cayucos
LOC
Q2141830
Boating
Concept
Q14373
fishing
Concept
Q455550
camping
Concept
Q755105
largemouth bass
Concept
Q59576
catfish
Concept
Q2751223
carp
Concept
None
black crappi
UNK
Q251730
sunfish
Concept
Q700143
dirt road
Concept
Q165632
dust
Concept
Q35872
boat
Concept
Q911379
spillway
Concept
Q514052
coast live oak
Concept
Q666160
blue oak
Concept
Q1377986
valley oak
Concept
Q2473331
gray pine
Concept
Q3382075
sudden oak death
Concept
Q7335181
Santa Margarita Lake
LOC
1941-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1941
DATE
+15^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
15
NUMBER
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24
NUMBER
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5
NUMBER
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8
NUMBER
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30
NUMBER
+48^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
48
NUMBER
+19^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
19
NUMBER
+8^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
8
NUMBER
inflows
located in the administrative territorial entity