Gold Rush Ghost Town Bodes Ill for California Power Flow

[Purveyor]

By Lynn Doan and Naureen S. Malik Feb 21, 2014 1:31 PM ET

An unwelcome sign for electricity users is emerging from the waters of Folsom Lake: the remnants of a Gold Rush mining town submerged for almost 60 years has resurfaced amid California’s record dry spell.

Just west of the stone ruins, Folsom Power plant is silent, its six-story-high columns without enough water to propel their turbines. It’s one of dozens of hydroelectric stations shut or running at reduced rates because of the worst drought in the state’s history.

“Seeing this town is intriguing and at the same time so scary,” said Heidi Anderson, a 55-year-old registered nurse who drove from Sacramento to explore the crumbling remnants of the 19th century town known as Mormon Island. “That power plant there obviously isn’t making power because there isn’t any water. Where has it all gone? What’s happening?”

California had the least rain and snow water in data going back to 1895 last year and faces an even drier 2014 as reservoir supplies dwindle and snowpacks shrink, cutting flows to hydropower plants that supply as much as a third of the state. That’s threatening to raise power prices in the third quarter to the highest in six years as plants that use more costly natural gas make up the difference and nuclear power leaves the grid.

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Tourist Attraction

Now families and couples with picnic baskets pay a $12 fee to trek through mud at Browns Ravine in search of Mormon Lake, which was once home to five general stores, four hotels and three dry-goods shops.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-21/gold-rush-ghost-town-bodes-ill-for-california-power-flow-energy.html

[SoCalDem]

1. Where it's gone?

Farmers irrigation (and subsequent evaporation)
Millions of people watering lawns...

and especially down here, NO real plan for capturing what rain we DO get

[nykym]

2. Hey lets

ship them all of our leftover snow!