Water in the West- San Luis Reservoir and O'Neill Forebay- California

Nestled in the grassy hills of the western San Joaquin Valley near historic Pacheco Pass  (windiest road in America), San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area.

San Luis Reservoir.

After hectic driving from the Channel Islands we arrived at the reservoir after midnight on June 23; the stars at the resevoir were incredible.The next day we stopped by the resevoir and had a discussion about it.

The San Luis Resevoir has 2, 040,000 million acre feet of storage and is the largest off stream reservoir in the United States. San Luis Reservoir was constructed as a storage reservoir for the federal Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project. It stores runoff water from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta that would otherwise flow into the  Pacific ocean. The water arrives through the California Aqueduct and the Delta-Mendota Canal to the O- Neill Forebay.

San Luis Reservoir and O'Neill Forebay serve as the upper and lower reservoirs for the Gianelli Hydroelectric plant, whihc began operation in 1968. The plant has eight turbines that pruce a comibed 424 megawatts electricity. During non peak electricity times when cost is low, water is pumped fomr the Forebay to the Reservoir and then during the day is released through the San Luis Dam thus creating hydropower that you now can sell.