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Power plants and water treatment facility clogged by debris in upper Kern

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 17, 2008 at 7:00 am

From Bakersfield Now:

Thunderstorms have hit areas recently burned by wildfires north of Kernville, and that run-off has ended up in the upper Kern River. The river was running a dark brown through Kernville on Wednesday afternoon. It looked like liquid mud where Patrick McCaughey was fishing in the park. He’d never seen the water like this on this part of the river. “Not with so much silt and all in it,” he told Eyewitness News.

Some of the river water is pulled out for treatment at the California Water Service plant in Kernville. The plant was making some water Wednesday afternoon, but only about one-third of their usual supply.

Technicians say the dirt-filled water clogs the plant in-takes from the river. Cal Water said the plant usually produces 1,000 gallons of water a minute. But as of Wednesday, it was down to about 33 gallons a minute.

Cal Water put out the word, they want people in Kernville and Wofford Heights to cut back water-use as much as possible. “I think it’s a good idea,” Riverkern resident Shelby Eller said. “We don’t need to use that much water, anyway.”

Not only has the dirt & silt caused problems for the city’s water treatment plant, but also for local power plants as well:

.. the dirty water in the upper Kern River has also forced the closure of the hydro-electric power plant just north of Kernville. Southern California Edison says that plant was shut down on Tuesday, the first day of bad water on the upper Kern.

“It gets into the tunnels and it just mucks everything up.” SCE spokeswoman Deborah Hess told Eyewitness News. “You’ve got to worry about all the mechanics, so you’ve got large logs and such that can get in and wreak havoc.”

The power plant above Kernville usually makes 36 megawatts of electricity. Hess says it was down to 15 megawatts just before the bad water. She says a megawatt can supply enough power for about 650 homes. Hess says SCE hopes to get that plant back on line soon.

But, river water is also still bad in the lower Kern River — and that’s forced the closure of an SCE plant in the canyon.

That’s KR-1, and it’s being clogged by run-off from the “Piute Fire” — the same run-off that caused problems in the community of Lake Isabella. Hess says KR-1 usually produces about 25 megawatts of power.

Read more from Bakersfield Now by clicking here.

July 17, 2008 · Filed Under Bakersfield

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