Friant-Kern Canal getting needed repairs

Like most things 50 years old, the Friant Kern Canal is in need of a little maintenance now and then.

This month workers with the Friant Water Users Authority are draining the 152-mile cement canal for its three-year checkup and repairs.

“We dewater the canal every three years. It’s a tri-annual effort,” said Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Water Authority.

Draining of the canal began about the middle of November and it should be basically dry by Dec. 1.

That emptying is done now because there is little need for the million acre feet of water the canal carries every year. However, a few cities - like Lindsay - do rely on the canal for their domestic water supply.

“With diminished water, the city of Lindsay switched to well water from two wells on Nov. 16,” the city reported in a Nov. 22 press release.

The city said the two wells being used provide additional water in times of need, but they are not used all the time. The two wells cannot meet the city’s water needs all the time, especially in the summer months.

Water can be pooled in areas where it is needed to less the burden on domestic users such as Lindsay and Orange Cove.

Jacobsma said water should be flowing down the canal by the end of January.

During the down time, workers will be replacing about 200 of the thousands of huge cement panels that line the canal from Millerton Lake above Fresno to the Kern River in Bakersfield.

Each panel is about 14-by-14 feet and up to six inches thick.

Jacobsma said that the needed repairs this time are not that bad. He said they have replaced as many as 600 panels in the past.

Besides the panels, workers will inspect the metal workings of the canal at 14 check structures - those that hold the water back at certain points - and at 27 turnout stations - where water is released to users along the route.

These devices will be inspected for needed repairs, sandblasted down to the metal and then re-coated. Those type of devices are checked on 12 year intervals.

It takes about 30 days to empty the canal that was constructed in the late 1940s and first held water in 1949, although the Tulare County segment did not get water until 1950, said Jacobsma.

He explained the water is drawn down slowly because if there is a leakage and they take the water down too fast, the panels could float and detach, prompting more repairs. Part of the tri-annual maintenance is to reseal the joints between the panels.

It take as little as three days to refill the channel, but Jacobsma said they typically take a little longer than that.

As part of the maintenance, crews will clean up the piles of debris that have made their way into the canal, “regular consumer debris” said maintenance manager Eric Quinley. The buildup of silt will also be removed.