Huell visits Edison\u2019s historic Kaweah Hydroelectric Facility on the western slope of the Sierras above Visalia. He interviews Jim Kepner, an Edison carpenter, whose maintenance duties include regularly walking the six-mile long wooden flume that delivers snow-melt waters from the mountains to the electrical generators at the Kaweah facility. Edison\u2019s history dates back more than 130 years and traces it\u2019s beginning to producing electricity with waterpower. Like the Kaweah facility many of the utility\u2019s century-old hydroelectric generating plants are still operating. Huell learns that the continuing success of these facilities is because they hold strong to turn-of-the-century technology and time-tested practices –such as manual inspections. This Flume Walking episode featured a job largely forgotten in a modern company but still provides an essential service in \u201ckeeping the lights on\u201d for more than three million customers. <\/p>\n
Note: This episode was released across Public Broadcasting Service’s (PBS) affiliated stations in California, but not necessarily on the same day for each station. The date shown represents an earliest, approximate airdate for this episode. A more conclusive airdate may potentially be between May 1, 1989 – May 31, 1989.<\/em><\/p>\n