“Engineers with Isabella Partners, which operates the power plant at the base of Isabella Dam, believe they’ve found a way to make repairs to the plant without drying up the lower Kern River for weeks on end.
If successful, water levels will drop from where they are now, but the river won’t go totally dry.
The work around will require fast action by an Isabella Partners crew that has been training on practice runs to weld a temporary “muscle wall” in one of two portals through the plant while water is cut back. Water will then be ramped back up through the main portal and dropped into the river bed, according to an explanation from Isabella Partners to William McKinnon, attorney for Water Audit California.
Roger Kirk, manager of the Isabella Partners’ plant, referred questions to McKinnon.
McKinnon has been working with Isabella Partners to find a way to keep flows in the river to protect fish populations since learning of the project several weeks ago.” [Read More]