Largest Reservoirs in South Dakota

South Dakota has 2539 dams with recorded storage capacity. The largest is Oahe Dam - Fort Yates Flood Protection Project with 23,600,000 acre-feet of maximum storage. One acre-foot equals about 326,000 gallons — enough to supply roughly two households for a year.

#	Dam	County	Max Storage (acre-ft)	Height (ft)	Purpose	Year
1	Oahe Dam - Fort Yates Flood Protection Project	Sioux	23,600,000	245	Flood Risk Reduction	1966
2	Fort Randall Dam	Charles Mix	6,300,000	170	Flood Risk Reduction	1954
3	Big Bend Dam	Lyman	1,900,000	205	Flood Risk Reduction	1963
4	Gavins Point Dam - Yankton Dam	Yankton	540,000	74	Flood Risk Reduction	1958
5	Shadehill Dam	Perkins	468,585	145	Flood Risk Reduction	1951
6	Belle Fourche Dam	Butte	246,000	122	Irrigation	1911
7	Angostura Dam	Fall River	197,100	193	Irrigation	1949
8	Pactola Dike 1	Pennington	140,898	115		1956
9	Houghton Dam	Brown	43,524	7	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1938
10	Deerfield Dam	Pennington	42,310	171	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1947
11	Columbia Road Dam	Brown	41,933	11	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1939
12	Elm Lake Dam	Brown	28,800	52	Water Supply	1937
13	Oahe Dam - Spring Creek Dam	Campbell	26,000	40	Other	1961
14	Sheridan Lake	Pennington	22,043	134	Recreation	1939
15	Grizzly Gulch Tailings Dam	Lawrence	20,200	380	Tailings	1998
16	Richmond	Brown	19,800	52	Recreation	1935
17	Mitchell	Davison	19,585	55	Water Supply	1928
18	Mina	Edmunds	19,000	32	Recreation	1934
19	East Vermillion	McCook	17,400	41	Flood Risk Reduction	1958
20	Lacreek Dam No. 9	Bennett	14,331	12	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1934
21	Oglala	Oglala Lakota	13,817	62	Recreation	1941
22	Redfield Lake	Spink	12,000	30	Recreation	1939
23	Cottonwood Springs Dam	Fall River	11,635	123	Flood Risk Reduction	1969
24	Lake Wanalain Dam	Brule	8,378	21	Recreation	1936
25	Lacreek #10 Dam	Bennett	7,690	14	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1934
26	Willow Creek	Brown	7,650	49	Water Supply	1934
27	Crow Creek	Buffalo	7,306	55	Recreation	1939
28	Cold Brook Dam	Fall River	7,200	130	Flood Risk Reduction	1953
29	Carthage	Miner	7,000	26	Water Supply	1964
30	Garrett Dam	Sully	5,000	64	Fire Protection, Stock, Or Small Fish Pond	1980
31	James Diversion Dam	Beadle	4,875	47	Recreation	1964
32	Amsden	Day	4,815	35	Recreation	1937
33	Flat Creek Dam	Perkins	4,640	35	Recreation	1934
34	Lacreek Dam No. 8	Bennett	4,558	12	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1934
35	Lacreek Dam No. 7	Bennett	4,386	11	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1934
36	Hurley	Potter	4,125	46	Recreation	1933
37	Gardner Lake Dam	Harding	3,726	32	Recreation	1948
38	Ludlow Dam	Harding	3,384	36	Irrigation	1951
39	Spring-bull 1	Charles Mix	3,370	64	Flood Risk Reduction	1973
40	White Lake Dam	Marshall	3,340	30	Recreation	1933
41	Third Street Dam	Beadle	3,200	7	Recreation	1930
42	Marindahl	Yankton	3,060	58	Recreation	1953
43	Henry	Bon Homme	3,000	45	Recreation	1938
44	Little White River Dam	Bennett	2,957	32	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1938
45	Dry Lake Dam	Brookings	2,935	23	Fish and Wildlife Pond	1997
46	Benson Dam	Tripp	2,900	35	Fire Protection, Stock, Or Small Fish Pond	1977
47	White Clay	Oglala Lakota	2,871	35	Recreation	1936
48	Buffalo Lake Road Dam 2	Meade	2,850	82	Recreation	1961
49	Upper Deer Creek-lake Hendricks Watershed (udclh) 1-c	Brookings	2,800	30	Flood Risk Reduction	1970
50	Fate Dam	Lyman	2,754	25	Recreation	1938

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