Arthur Hailey - Overload

"Just the company mailman, son," Fred Wilkins said. “The post office van'll be another hour." He explained to the others, "Danny's excited because it's his birthday. He's hoping for some packages."

"I'm eight," the small boy volunteered; be looked strong and sturdy for his age. "I had some presents already. But there might be more."

"Happy birthday, Danny!" Nim and Wally said together.

Moments later they parted company, Nim continuing toward the visitors' bunkhouse.

In the tailrace tunnel's semi-darkness, above the mighty thunderous sound of confined rushing water, Oakland Tribune shouted, "When I get through these two days I'm gonna ask for a quiet week on the obit desk."

Several others nearby smiled but shook their heads, unable to bear the words for two reasons-the all-enveloping water sound and plugs of absorbent cotton in their ears. Material for the plugs, which muffled the echoing tunnel noise a little, had been handed them outside by Teresa Van Buren. That was after the group scrambled down a steep rock stairway to where the tailrace of Devil's Cate 1 generating plant emptied boisterously into Pineridge River, twenty feet below.

As they fiddled with the earplugs, preparing to enter the tunnel, someone had called out, "Hey, Tess! Why you takin' us in by the back door?"

"It's the tradesmen's entrance," she answered. "Since when did you characters deserve better? Besides, you're always sounding off about needing color for your stories. Here it is."

"Color? In there?" Los Angeles Times had said skeptically, peering forward into the blackness which was punctuated only by a few dim light bulbs. The tunnel was approximately circular, hewn out of solid rock, with the walls left rough and unfinished as at the time of excavation.

The light bulbs were near the roof. Suspended halfway between them and the turbulent water was a narrow catwalk on which the visitors would walk. Ropes on either side of the catwalk could be grabbed as handholds. Earlier, following breakfast, Nim Goldman had explained what they would be seeing-"a hydroelectric plant that's completely underground, inside a mountain. Later we'll talk about the proposed Devil's Gate pumped storage plant which will also be underground-entirely out of sight."

He continued, “The tailrace, where we're going, is actually the end of the generating process. But it will give you an idea of the kind of forces we're dealing with. The water you'll see has passed through the turbine blades after having been used to spin the turbines, and comes out in tremendous quantities."

The massive flow had been evident outside the tunnel to some who had leaned over a metal guardrail above the river, watching the awesome torrent join the already angry maelstrom below.

"By God! I'd hate to fall in," KFSO Radio observed. He asked Van Buren,

"Has anyone ever?"

"Once that we know of. A workman slipped from here. He was a strong swimmer, even had some medals we found out after, but the flow in the tailrace pulled him under. It was three weeks before the body came up."

Instinctively, those nearest the guardrail took a step backward.

Something else Nim had told them in advance was that this particular tailrace was unique. “The tunnel is a third of a mile long and was cut horizontally into the side of a mountain. While the tunnel was being built, and before any water was let in, there were points where two construction trucks could pass side by side."

Nancy Molineaux had pointedly stifled a yawn. "Shit! So you got a long, fat, wet cave. Is that news?"

"It doesn't have to be news. This entire two-day deal is for background,"

Van Buren pointed out. "That was explained to everyone beforehand, including your editors."

"Did you say 'background' or 'craparound?"' Ms. Molineaux asked.

The others laughed.

"Never mind," Nim said. "I'd finished anyway."

Some twenty minutes later, after a short bus ride, be had led the way into the tailrace tunnel.

The cool dampness was in contrast to the warm, sunny day outside. As the group moved forward in single file, only a few feet above the foam-flecked water rushing beneath them, the circle of daylight behind receded to a pinpoint. Ahead, the few dim light bulbs seemed to stretch into limitless distance. Now and then someone would pause to look down, all the while clinging tightly to the guide ropes.

At length, the end of the tunnel and a vertical steel ladder came in sight. At the same time a new sound intruded-a hum of generators, growing to a mighty roar as the ladder was reached. Nim motioned upward and ascended first, the others following.

They passed through an open trapdoor into a lower generating chamber, then, by way of a circular staircase, to a brightly lighted control room two floors above. Here, to general relief, the noise level was diminished, only a faint hum penetrating the insulated walls.

A wide, plate glass window provided a view of two huge generators, both in operation, immediately below.

In the control room a solitary technician was writing in a logbook as he studied an array of dials, colored lights and graphic pen recorders which occupied one wall. Hearing the group enter, he turned. Even before that, Nim recognized him from his shock of red hair.

"Hullo, Fred Wilkins."

"Hi, Mr. Goldman!" the technician offered a brief "good morning" to the visitors, then continued writing.

"Where we are standing," Nim announced, "is five hundred feet underground. This plant was built by sinking a shaft from above, the way you would for a mine. There's an elevator goes from here to the surface and, in another shaft, high voltage transmission lines."

"Not many people working here," Sacramento Bee commented. He was looking through the window at the generator floor where no one was in sight.

The technician closed his logbook and grinned. "In a couple of minutes you won't see any."

"this is an automated generating plant," Nim explained. "Mr. Wilkins here comes in to make a routine check"-he queried the technician-"how often?"

"Just once a day, sir."

"Otherwise," Nim continued, "the place stays tightly locked and unattended, except for occasional maintenance or if something goes wrong,"

Los Angeles Times asked, "How about starting up and shutting down?"

"It's done from the control center a hundred and fifty miles away. Most new hydroelectric plants are designed this way. They're efficient, and there's a big saving in labor costs."

"When something is wrong, and there's a panic," New West inquired, "what then?"

"Whichever generator is affected-or even both-will send a warning to control, then shut down automatically until a service crew gets here."

"It's this kind of generating plant," Teresa Van Buren interjected, "that Devil's Gate z, the proposed pumped storage plant, will be removed from view so it won't mar the landscape, also non-polluting and economic."

Nancy Molineaux spoke for the first time since coming in. “There's one teensy item you left out of that snow job, Tess. The goddam great reservoir that would have to be built and the natural land which would be flooded."

"A lake in these mountains, which is what it will be, is every bit as natural as dry wilderness," the PR director retorted. "What's more, it will provide fishing . . ."

Nim said gently, "Let me, Tess." He was determined, today, not to let Nancy Molineaux or anyone else ruffle him.

"Miss Molineaux is right," he told the group, "to the extent that a reservoir is needed. It will be a mile from here, high above us and visible only from airplanes or to nature lovers willing to make a long, hard climb. In building it we'll observe every environmental safeguard . . ."

“The Sequoia Club doesn't think so," a male TV reporter interrupted.