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How does valley water get over the Grapevine?
Images
A large mural shows how enormously powerful pumps push millions of gallons of Central Valley water up the Tehachapi Mountains and into Southern California.
Bakosphere
Some people may not know it, but lots of Central Valley water is piped down to Southern California. But how does it get over the 4,000-foot-high Tehachapi Mountains?
Chris Austin tells you in a illustrative post on her Maven's Photoblog titled "The Big Lift: A photo tour of the State Water Project's Edmonston Pumping Plant."
Sounds kind of boring but it's actually an interesting behind-the-scenes tour of technology at the base of the Grapevine that pushes water nearly 2,000 feet up a mountain, where it then feeds tunnels and pipelines that take the water down to millions in the Southland. And it's a process that's been occurring since 1972.
Austin explains that 7-story-deep pumps weighing 420 tons and producing 80,000 horsepower can push up to 2 million gallons per minute up the hills.
Big numbers, big task.
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