Aqueduct Will Resume Operation After Quake

State officials said Saturday that they expect to resume pumping water over the Tehachapi Mountains into Southern California on Monday, after repairs to a powerful pumping station knocked out of service by an earthquake Friday.

Four of six circuit breakers went out at the A. D. Edmonston Pumping Plant near the Grapevine, silencing 14 motors, each generating 80,000 horsepower. When the pumping plant went out of service, the 444-mile-long California Aqueduct was shut down.

One of the circuit breakers, weighing a ton, exploded when the 5.2 magnitude temblor rolled through the area. Plant officials said the explosion sprayed ceramic material around the site, which is on the eastern side of the mountain range.

No one was injured in the accident, which will cause the longest unscheduled shutdown of the plant since it began operating in 1971.

“By Monday we should have four of the six circuit breakers (in operation) and we can resume operation,” said Rudy Laumbach, chief of the San Joaquin Field Division of the Department of Water Resources.

Despite the unscheduled interruption of service, state officials said there will be no water shortages because additional water is stored in four reservoirs: Pyramid, Castaic, Silverwood and Perris Lakes.

When it was inaugurated, the plant was celebrated as a marvel that united the wet Northern and dry Southern regions of the state. In raising the water more than 1,900 feet over the Tehachapis, the plant consumes enough power to light the city of San Francisco.

The quake was centered about 11 miles northeast of Gorman, and some of the most serious shaking occurred at the 205-acre Ft. Tejon State Historic Park in Lebec, where two Civil War-era adobe buildings were damaged and closed to the public. “A maintenance worker was in the shop facility and watched the homes roll up like a wave was going through,” said William Berry, park superintendent.

The fort was built in 1854, only to be destroyed in a major earthquake in 1857, located along the San Andreas Fault. The fort was rebuilt a year later, and housed Company A of the U.S. Army Dragoons, a 200-man force that was sent to protect Indian tribes in the Southern San Joaquin Valley from attacks by white settlers.

“It was the most isolated of forts in the U.S. Army at the time,” Berry said. “It was a 3 1/2-day trip to Los Angeles.”

The fort was abandoned during the Civil War, as the soldiers chose sides and marched off to join the Blue and Gray.

The two buildings that received the most serious damage were the barracks and the orderlies’ quarters. Berry reported cracks in the plaster in both buildings, and bulges in at least one wall in the orderlies’ quarters that may indicate serious structural damage. To the public, the silver lining is that while the buildings are closed, visitors won’t have to pay the park entry fee of $1.00 for adults and 50 cents for children.

The park normally attracts 40,000 visitors each year.

Caltech reported that there have been at least a dozen aftershocks to the quake, which struck at 4:06 p.m. Friday. The largest was a 4.0 shock that hit at 4:22 p.m. Friday.