Los Banos Rotary Club History
PG&E Superintendent Tells Plans For Kings Development

Marion L. Crum, of Fresno, division of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Tuesday noon gave members of the Los Banos Rotary Club an interesting report of the company's planned power development along the Kings River that will ad more than 375,000 horsepower of electric generating capacity to the PG&E system.

Through an agreement with irrigation interests on the Kings River, who water rights and priority extends back more than 75 years, and with official approval of the Federal Power Commission, the company will build three storage reservoirs and three huge powerhouses, stretching from Courtright Dam, at the mouth of Helm Creek, downward some 40 miles through Sierra and Sequoia National Forests to Pine Flat, and using the waters of the Kings river three times to generate power.

Courtright Dam, recently renamed in favor of the late C. H. 'Kelly' Courtright of Fresno, is at the 8100 foot level in the now almost inaccessible upper country. Access roads to the damsite are already under construction, together with power transmission lines and actual construction will get underway this spring as soon as the snow melt permits. Completion is expected in 1959. The reservoir will store 102,500 acre-feet of water behind the rock-fill concrete faced dam that will be 310 feet high. Cost of the dam is estimated at $7,800,000.

Wishon Reservoir, about three miles downstream at Coolidge Meadows, a favored trout fishing spot for many Los Banosans, will impound 128,500 acre feet of water. It also will be made of native granite rock fill, with concrete facing, and will cost about $16 ½ million. A concrete lined spillway in connection will handle a peak flow of 30,000 second-feet of water.

Water will be taken from Wishon Reservoir through a 6.2 mile tunnel drilled through solid granite and carried through a 5,000 foot penstock to the Haas powerhouse, the first underground power plant to be built in the United States. The underground placing will save nearly $1 million from the originally designed surface location. A tailrace tunnel will carry the water into Balch diversion reservoir. Construction of the Hass tunnel will begin next spring and the entire installation will cost nearly $25 million, making it the most costly unit of the project.

From the enlarged Black Rock reservoir, a new mile long penstock will be constructed, and the new Balch tunnel, a more than 3 ½ mile bore through solid granite, will carry the water from an elevation of 4,102 feet to the new powerhouse 2,400 feet below.

Final link in the project will be the Kings River powerhouse, at the inlet to Pine Flat reservoir, where a single generating unit will provide another 60,000 horsepower. This plant is scheduled for completion in 1961 and will cost $11,300,00.

The Kings river powerhouse tunnel, Crum said, will be more than 3 1/3 miles long and will include a giant 2,000 foot siphon to carry the water over Dinkey Creek.

Crum said that the new access roads being built to the dam and power house sites will be opened to the public as the projects are completed and he predicted more and better fishing than is now possible along the uncontrolled stream.

In a brief review of the history of the river itself, Crum told of how, 150 years ago, a band of Spanish soldiers and priests in search of sites for inland missions arrived at an unknown river. Captain Gabriel Moranga, in command of the party, impressed with the grandeur of the nearby Sierras, named the river El Rio de los Santos Reyes, "The River of the Holy Kings," and I was so recorded. Beginning in 1901 numerous surveying and engineering parties studied the river and envisioned its ultimate usage for irrigation and power development. A. G. Wishon, former president and manager of the old San Joaquin Light and Power Company, who first surveyed the area in 1904 immediately foresaw its opportunities for development to meet the growing demand for electrical energy. Then followed years of planning, of negotiation with the farmers who used the waters for irrigation, and with the federal government, which held up the planned project for several years on the possibility that the resources could be developed as part of the Central Valley Project.

Crum was introduced by local PG&E manager, M. D. Wheat. Frances E. Riley, supervisor of building maintenance in the PG&E's Fresno division, was also a guest at the Rotary luncheon.

January 20, 1955

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