The height of the Seven Oaks Dam is roughly 500 ft. This is a flood control dam, not a hydro-electric dam. There is, though, a hydro-electric facility on-site that has been operating for the past 100 years (it is just not part of the dam construction).
Here is a picture of the Summer Success Academy students the top of the dam looking toward the city of Redlands. The other image you see (below - left) is looking back up the Santa Ana Canyon. There isn't much water behind the dam currently. It is mid-July and this past winter did not bring much rain or snow.
The important thing to note here is that this is not a "recreational" site, nor is the water held back for future needs (what comes in, goes out). The purpose of the Seven Oaks Dam is primarily flood control for Orange County (located to the south of here). There is a discussion taking place whereby the regional water companies want this site to function as a storage facility so that water districts down stream can make use of any water held here during the dryer seasons.
For comparison sake, the image shown to the right is early spring when the reservoir behind the dam has the highest amount of water.Electricity is generated on this site (just not through the release of water from the dam). Water travels down a penstock to a power generation plant that has a pelton wheel. Due to the lack of water currently, the power plant is unable to generate electricity. When the site is generating power, roughlty 700-900 homes in the area are served.
Here is a look inside the power station. The "tube" coming down at an angle (just behind the blue piece of equipment) is the pinstock Water comes down the penstock and shots into the pelton wheel (at a high rate of pressure). This spins the turbine and electricity is generated.This video below provides a demonstration of how a pelton wheel fucntions:
Source for video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd5BN7SPkqI
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