The North Fork Kings River is a tributary of the Kings River, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The river's

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...

is entirely within

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...

, and its watershed drains about of the southern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

mountain range.

Course

It rises at an elevation of on the western border of the

Sierra National Forest Sierra National Forest is a U.S. national forest located on the western slope of central Sierra Nevada in Central California and bounded on the northwest by Yosemite National Park and the south by Kings Canyon National Park. The forest is kno ...

in an unnamed pond a mile (1.6 km) south of Mount Reinstein. It flows west through a high, lake-studded alpine basin before dropping into a deep valley. The river receives Post Corral and Helms creeks from the right before emptying into Wishon Reservoir, formed by the

Wishon Dam Wishon Dam (National ID # CA00411) is a dam in Fresno County, California in the Sierra National Forest, in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It impounds the North Fork Kings River to form Wishon Reservoir. The earthen and rockfill gravity dam wa ...

. Flowing southwards into a gorge, the river then receives Rancheria Creek from the left, then turns southwest into Black Rock Reservoir. After this reservoir, it flows west and receives Patterson Creek from the right, and is impounded again at a small diversion dam. Shortly afterwards it receives Dinkey Creek, its largest tributary, from the right at Balch Camp, then turns south, flowing into the Kings River just northwest of Rodgers Crossing.

River modifications

An extensive hydroelectric system is located along the North Fork. Below the

the North Fork flows through a gorge with a massive drop in elevation and is used to generate conventional hydroelectricity at two stations along its course. A tunnel from Wishon Reservoir carries water to the 128

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

underground Haas Powerhouse, where the water drops to power the turbines. Black Rock Reservoir serves as the afterbay for the Haas Powerhouse and forebay for Balch Powerhouse, located another downstream. Below that is the Kings River Powerhouse, which discharges water directly into

Pine Flat Lake Pine Flat Lake is an artificial lake or reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills of eastern Fresno County, California on the western north-south border to the Sierra- and Sequoia National Forests, about east of Fresno. The lake is managed by ...

. The Balch Powerhouse is one of the oldest hydro developments on the Kings River, originally completed in 1927 by San Joaquin Light & Power, a predecessor of

Pacific Gas and Electric Company The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...

(PG&E). It was only after the Balch Powerhouse was incorporated into PG&E's system that plans were finalized for the Haas Powerhouse, which was completed in 1959. Construction on the big storage dams at Wishon and Courtright Reservoir were completed in 1962. The North Fork system was at one point, in the 1940s, the subject of a local controversy regarding whether it should be developed by the federal government or a private company (PG&E). Farmers feared that the federal plan would involve moving water south as part of the

Central Valley Project The Central Valley Project (CVP) is a federal power and water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). It was devised in 1933 in order to provide irrigation an ...

, reducing what was available for local use. On the other hand, PG&E was willing to negotiate with the farmers for the use of reservoir water, and more importantly, its project would involve no transbasin diversions, keeping all the water in the Kings River system. The debate was settled in 1949 when PG&E was allowed to construct the Wishon and Courtright dams. Wishon Reservoir and Courtright Reservoir, respectively, are the lower and upper reservoirs for the

Helms Pumped Storage Plant The Helms Pumped Storage Plant is located 50 mi (80 km) east of Fresno, California in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range's Sierra National Forest. It is a power station that uses Helms Creek canyon on the North Fork of the Kings River for ...

, which at 1,212

s is one of the largest pumped-storage hydroelectricity plants in the United States. Water is pumped into Courtright Reservoir during times of low demand and released into Wishon Reservoir to generate

peaking power Peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants, and occasionally just "peakers", are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity. Because they supply power only occasionally, the powe ...

. Also owned by PG&E, the plant was built between 1977 and 1984.

References

{{Authority control * Kings River North Kings River North Kings River North Kings River North Rivers of the Sierra Nevada in California Hydroelectric power plants in California

Course

River modifications

See also

References