The US Department of the Interior has reported that the New Melones dam, a hydro dam on the Stanislaus river, near Sonora, approximately 160km east of San Francisco, is back on line after repairs.
The dam began producing power again on 18 January after being shut down from 2-17 January for repairs. The US Bureau of Reclamation said that cracks were detected in anchors that support the dam’s 7m tunnel in late 1997. Although several efforts were made to fix the problem without shutting the dam down, cracking continued. The repairs, estimated to cost US$400,000, were completed 46 days ahead of schedule. The hydro facility at the dam has the capacity produce approximately 2190MW.
