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The Big Creek Hydroelectric Project is an extensive hydroelectric power scheme on the upper San Joaquin River system, in the Sierra Nevada of central California. The project is owned and operated by Southern California Edison (SCE). The use and reuse of the waters of the San Joaquin River, its South Fork, and the namesake of the project, Big Creek – over a vertical drop of – have over the years inspired a nickname, "The Hardest Working Water in the World". The primary purpose of the project was to provide electric power for the fast-growing city of Los Angeles. California engineer John S. Eastwood was the principal designer of the system, which was initially funded and built by Henry E. Huntington's Pacific Light and Power Company (PL&P). Construction of the system's facilities started in 1911, and the first power was transmitted to Los Angeles in 1913. After SCE acquired PL&P in 1917, the system was gradually expanded to its present size, with the last powerhouse coming on line in 1987. Today, these facilities include 27 dams, miles of underground tunnels, and 24 generating units in nine powerhouses with a total installed capacity of more than 1,000 megawatts (MW). Its six major reservoirs have a combined storage capacity of more than . Today, the Big Creek project generates nearly 4 billion kilowatt hours (KWh) per year – about 90 percent of SCE's total hydroelectric power, or about 20 percent of SCE's total generating capacity. Big Creek accounts for 12 percent of all the hydroelectric power produced in California. The Big Creek reservoirs also provide irrigation and flood control benefits for the Central Valley, and are popular recreation areas. However, the project has had various environmental and social impacts, including the disruption of fish and animal migration, and the flooding of historical sites and traditional Native American lands. ==Background== The Big Creek Project was the vision of California engineer John S. Eastwood, who first surveyed the upper San Joaquin River system in the late 1880s and mapped potential sites for reservoirs and hydroelectric plants. In 1895, Eastwood became chief engineer at the San Joaquin Electric Company which made an effort to develop a hydroelectric project on the North Fork of the San Joaquin River. However, they lacked the capital to build a storage dam and when a drought hit, the North Fork dried up, leading to the financial failure of that project. Eastwood was undaunted by the failure and founded his own Mammoth Power Company which intended to generate power by creating a rockfill dam on the main stem of the San Joaquin. However, investors balked at the massive potential costs of this project (the tunnel required to carry water to the power station would be long) and by 1901 Eastwood ceased to promote this plan. Following this, Eastwood began to draw up much grander plans for a hydroelectric system encompassing the entire upper San Joaquin River basin. Instead of a single large power plant – which would require an extensive tunnel and a big dam – he decided to split the system into a series of smaller reservoirs, where power would be generated in a stairstep fashion. This time, he finally found an investor willing to fund the audacious project.〔 In 1902 Eastwood took his plans to William G. Kerckhoff, a Southern California businessman who was affiliated with Henry Huntington, a wealthy developer and power magnate from Los Angeles.〔 Huntington was the founder of the Pacific Light and Power Company (PL&P), which was struggling to boost its generating capacity due to fast growth in Los Angeles and its suburbs, especially due to the new interurban electric light rail system that consumed some 80% of the region's power by the early 1900s. Hydroelectricity was seen as an attractively cheap alternative to thermal power stations, and the San Joaquin River was the only river close and large enough to Los Angeles to generate the kind of power Huntington envisioned. Although Huntington was initially skeptical of the feasibility of the project, he was impressed by Eastwood's studies and hired him to PL&P granting him 5,400 shares in return for making a thorough survey and a final plan for the hydroelectric system.〔 Eastwood conducted these surveys between 1902 and 1905. PL&P immediately began filing claims for San Joaquin water rights. However, construction was postponed for many years because the company's directors thought that the project would generate far more power than was needed at the time and emphasized development of more thermal plants. By 1905, Eastwood had developed his initial proposal for the system, consisting of a large reservoir and two powerhouses along Big Creek, a major tributary of the San Joaquin. During this time Eastwood pioneered the design of the multiple-arch dam; he would later become renowned for the building of this type of dam across the West.〔 By 1907, PL&P was almost ready to begin construction, but was further set back by the Panic of 1907.〔 Then in 1910, Huntington, for reasons still not clearly known, fired Eastwood as chief engineer. This may have been because of conflicts over their respective shares of control or profit from the project. Also, the company's investors were doubtful of the safety of Eastwood's multiple-arch dam proposal and wanted to change to primarily gravity dams. However, "they may simply have viewed him as a mere technician who had performed his function at Big Creek and was no longer needed." Then in 1912 Eastwood was removed from PL&P altogether when Huntington assessed all shares valued at $5 in order to finance the project. Eastwood was unable to pay his resulting $27,000 assessment and was forced to give up his stake.〔 Nevertheless, PL&P retained his original plans for the project.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Big Creek Hydroelectric Project」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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