Talk:Kings River (California)

Length
How long are: Please mention the source of the length values. --84.138.112.197 (talk) 13:06, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Kings River (from its confluence of Middle and South Fork to end),
 * North Fork Kings River,
 * Middle Fork Kings River and
 * South Fork Kings River?

Map Corrections Needed
The large map; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kings_River_Map.jpg needs correcting.

1) Labeled "Helms Creek" is actually the NF Kings River. Wishon Res is on the NF Kings River. Courtright Res is on the short Helms Creek. Both of these lakes make up The Helms (hydroelectric) Project, water is pumped uphill at night from Wishon to Courwright. --see Lake Wishon Wishon Dam Courtright Reservoir Courtright Dam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reservoirs_and_dams_in_California

2) Mill Creek probably should not be included on this map. It is a seasonal creek, almost always dry. (Some bigger, but small permanent creeks have been omitted, such as Big Creek, as well as all other temporary creeks.) However, Mill Creek is politically (propaganda) important since many farmers want the public to think it's big so taxpayers will buy them another dam. (It is one of the un-damed Sierra creeks, and occasionally "floods." So is this a natural watershed map, or political propaganda map? --see Google Earth, zoom in, the "creek bed" is full of homes and difficult to see and to follow, no riparian habitat.

3) The North Fork Distributary eastern half is wrong, (should be erased) and it should also be drawn small like the other canals in the area.  It is shown separating from the Kings just below the Friant-Kern Canal (probably where the Consolidated Canal is) but it actually separates much farther down, well south of Riverdale. (And also a little north too.) The so-called North Fork Distributary is a series of artificial canals and sloughs always dry except when a series of weirs are switched on in rare flood years in order to divert water away from the now dry and heavily farmed Tulare Lake Bed, north into the San Joaquin River and the sea.  North Fork flow can be routed back to Kings River South Fork using Crescent Weir and Crescent Bypass. Flow in excess of the downstream water supply needs in the Kings River is normally first diverted into the North Fork which then flows into Fresno Slough, Fish Slough, and James Bypass, which together constitute the Kings River North channel system. Because some of those canals and sloughs are miles apart, it's partially as much concept as river or canal. --see: Tulare Lake Basin Hydrology and Hydrography: A Summary of the Movement of Water and Aquatic Species 12 April 2007 http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=P1002E2I.txt page 88 Kings River Diversions and Weirs

4) I wonder if the natural historic terminus of the Kings River, the now dry Tulare Lake shouldn't at least be hinted at? It was once the largest lake outside of the Great Lakes, a wetland of HUGE economic and environmental importance. Only when it rarely  flooded did it spill north into the sea via the Fresno Slough.

Finally, a note of caution. This region is home to the hugely powerful Kings River Conservation District, their bosses the KRWA, and to JG Boswell Corp, the largest farmer in the world. They have a near monopoly on information and propaganda coming out of that region. As the Fresno Bee wrote in 1999-10-31: "If it wanted to, the J.G. Boswell Co. could boast of a political prowess that changed California. The company's clout and dexterity helped build dams, bury canals and win precedent-setting fights in the nation's highest court." -- also see The King Of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of A Secret American Empire, By Mark Arax, Rick Wartzman 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 576 pages

Doug Bashford--68.127.85.141 (talk) 03:46, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

History
A point of clarification I think might be important to include: Groundwater subbasins in the lower Kings River Watershed (as defined by the Department of Water Resources' Bulletin 118 http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/bulletin118/update2003.cfm) are the Kings Basin and Tulare Lake Basin. The two basins are roughly split by the Kings River - the Kings to the north and the Tulare Lake to the south. The City of Hanford lies within the Tulare Lake Basin, not the Kings.

---H2olocalcontrol--- — Preceding unsigned comment added by H2olocalcontrol (talk • contribs) 20:12, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

River modifications
"Further downstream, the Friant-Kern Canal intersects and diverts water off the Kings River southwards towards Bakersfield.[6] The purpose of the 152-mile (245 km) channel, which starts on the San Joaquin River and ends at the Kern River, is to provide irrigation water to farms on the east side of the southern San Joaquin Valley. Construction work on the canal lasted from 1945 to 1951.[15] A second dam on the Kings River, the Rogers Crossing Dam, was proposed for construction in the late 1980s, upstream from Pine Flat. At a planned 600 feet (180 m) high, it would have backed water up through the foothills for 12 miles (19 km). Environmental concerns have halted the project thus far.[16]"

The Friant-Kern Canal does in fact intersect the Kings River, but waters are NOT diverted off of the Kings southwards towards Bakersfield. However, waters can and are diverted off of the Friant-Kern INTO the Kings River just before the Friant-Kern is piped underneath the Kings River on its way south to Kern County.

Finally, a note of caution. Mr. Bashford obviously has an axe to grind, so you'll need to pick out some of the quality facts he's posted from the opinionated conspiracy theory rhetoric he has also injected here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by H2olocalcontrol (talk • contribs) 20:26, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

--H2olocalcontrol-- — Preceding unsigned comment added by H2olocalcontrol (talk • contribs) 20:19, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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To add to article
To add to this article: a map that gives readers their bearings for where, exactly, this river is located within the state of California. Why isn't such a map already included in the article, it's something so basic that any reader would wish to know right off the bat? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 18:46, 6 February 2021 (UTC)