Come On In! The Water's Fine!

Okay, I have been busy this week. Truth be told, I've been looking for a place to live in Riverside. Living in Riverside doesn't appeal to me, but rents are cheaper, and I'd be closer to work.

Speaking of work, let me direct you to the map at the top of this post. At the center is Lake Mathews, where I work. As reference, the city of Riverside is located north of the lake, and the intersection of the 91 Freeway and Interstate 15 is to the northwest, in Corona.

Let me close in now on what I've been working on this week. In this picture, you can see a closeup of a portion of the Construction Services Unit, north of the dyke. I have highlighted my shop, the hydroelectric plant, and the forebay. Now, here's how it works:

Water enters the lake from the Colorado River Aqueduct. From there, it drains into a feeder tower at the western end of the lake and runs through a hydroelectric generator, which provides power for us and for sale to Southern California Edison. As it leaves the hydro plant, it enters the forebay. On the north side of the forebay is another tower, under which are two pipelines known as "feeders". The North Feeder directs water to our La Verne facility, and the South Feeder goes to our Diemer (Yorba Linda) facility.

Okay, enough education.

All this week (and next week), I am assisting a team from Mills Plant (elsewhere in Riverside) in their five-year maintenance of the Hydro plant here at the lake. Really glamorous stuff, like hitting the ceramic insulators with Windex, and polishing the silver-plated contacts on fuses. Hey, there is a good reason for this. Without this maintenance, there is a risk of arcing due to dirt deposits, or of reduction of power because the contacts were too tarnished.

Now, it's time for the cool stuff. In this maintenance, the water entering the hydro plant is cut off. But there's also a bypass line that feeds from the lake directly into the forebay. As a result, the forebay's water level drops because the water entering it has been cut by 50%. When the forebay is full, it's hard to see just how fast that water comes out of these lines.

The other day, the water level dropped enough to give an impressive display of just how much water pressure there is here. I should point out that as impressive as this looks, it's only about half as much as it usually is!

Oh, and yes, there are signs posted that read "DANGER! No swimming! Turbulent water!"

There are two reasons why you don't want to swim in this pool. The first, let's just say these pictures tell that half of the story. The other reason is those feeder lines I mentioned earlier. They take in water at about the same rate that the hydro lines give it, and they have grates within them that would turn you into hamburger if you got sucked into them. Graphic, yes. But for good reason!