How ‘The Glory Hole’ works
The Glory Hole works a lot like the drain in the side of your sink. When water gets too high it spills into the drain to prevent overflow.
The Glory Hole itself is an impressive structure. At the surface, the pipe measures 72 feet across.
all curved, so you have the least resistance for the water to go down The Glory Hole,” said Jim Daniels, District Engineer for Solano Irrigation District. “And it’s very efficient. It’s not very turbulent. It’s actually rather placid. It’s not that placid down inside The Glory Hole itself.”
Once water spills into the hole, it drops about 200 feet straight down, into a narrowing pipe. At the bottom, the pipe’s diameter is down to 28 feet. At that point, the pipe takes a 90-degree turn and runs hundreds of feet to the other side of Monticello Dam. The water spills out into Putah Creek, where it eventually flows into the Yolo Bypass.
But, why this hole?
For many people who see The Glory Hole, the question that arises is why this hole, and not a more typical spillway? The answer is space.
The Monticello Dam sits at the Devil’s Gate in a narrow canyon. While the site was a good spot to build the dam, it did not have enough space to build a big channel and overflow berm. So, engineers decided the best way to get water to the other side of the dam was to dig down. They tunneled through rock to reach a tunnel that had already been built to divert Putah Creek during dam construction. That original tunnel now acts as the spillway for The Glory Hole.
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