Every year, we invite members of the community to tour a portion of our amazing water and power system. The tour started at Hunter Reservoir, which is at an elevation of 3,200 feet in Hathaway Pines. This reservoir is filled by a combination of Mill Creek runoff and flows from the Stanislaus River, which are delivered via a Mill Creek Tunnel Tap.
From there, our group headed out to the Three-Quarter Mile Flume near Forest Meadows. This section of flume has a breathtaking view of the canyon, where the middle fork and north fork of the Stanislaus River meet; due to the extreme terrain during maintenance, all materials will be brought out by hand, including boxboards, stringers, bent caps, and aluminum liner.
Before the last leg of our tour, we enjoyed sandwiches at Murphys Park. Did you know Murphys Creek would be dry all summer and fall without Utica’s water conveyance systems, which delivers water to our beautiful community park from the Stanislaus River?
Lastly, we found ourselves at the Murphys Powerhouse and Murphys Afterbay. It is incredible the amount of knowledge our hydro operators have. Take a look at all the knobs, gauges and switches, dating back to the 1950s. This is where we are able to use the water to create power. The power is then fed into the PG&E grid, and Utica uses revenues from power sales to fund water system maintenance.
