The lake, which once comprised nearly of seasonal open water and wetlands, was reduced to less than by 1960. During the 1969 rains local residents clamored for floodwaters from Pine Flat Lake to be diverted to Tulare lakebed. Representation on the irrigation district board, however, was determined by the value of landowners’ land and J. G. Boswell Company owned the majority of land in the district. J. G. Boswell Co. voted to block the floodwater diversion so that its crops on the Buena Vista lakebed would not be destroyed. Residents whose homes were destroyed by the flood sued. Limiting suffrage to landowners violated the one man, one vote guarantee in the U.S. Constitution, they alleged, because the irrigation district can levy taxes, exercise eminent domain, and decide whose land gets flooded. In 1973 a divided United States Supreme Court disagreed, finding that a private company can exercise control of the irrigation district because flood control is not an important government function. In the early 1970s, the KRCD (Kings River Conservation District) proposed a system of new dams and power plants to further develop the water resources of the Kings River watershed. These included a new power station at Pine Flat Dam, a massive dam at Rodgers Crossing upstream of Pine Flat Lake and a reservoir at Piedra to regulate Pine Flat Dam releases. The only part of the project to be completed was the Jeff L. Taylor Pine Flat Power Plant at the base of Pine Flat Dam, which went into operation in 1984. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, Pine Flat Dam was closed to all public access because of its importance in protecting the region from floods and the damage that the impounded water would do if the dam was breached. Design and operations Pine Flat Dam is a solid concrete gravity structure that stands high from foundations and high above the Kings River. At an elevation of , the reservoir has a capacity of and covers , stretching up the river with of shoreline. The spillway consists of six bays each controlled by a 36x42 foot (11x13 m) tainter gate, and has a capacity of at full reservoir elevation. The dam's hydroelectric power station contains three 55 megawatt (MW) Francis turbines with a combined capacity of 165 MW. The plant produces about 420 million kilowatt hours (KWh) annually, enough to supply the