Work Continues To Lower Lake Levels

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that the spillways at all three reservoir dams on the Upper Savannah River will remain open for several days as efforts continue to get water levels down to the winter guide curve.

Late Wednesday night, the Corps’ Savannah office announced it would open the spillways at all three reservoir dams, Lake Hartwell, Russell Lake, and Thurmond Lake, either Thursday or today to try and bring the lake levels down to the winter guide curve.

Wednesday morning, Lake Hartwell’s lake level was 662 feet above mean sea level, six feet above the winter guide curve level of 656 feet.

Thursday morning, Hartwell’s lake level remained at 662.98 feet above mean sea level.

So much rain has fallen over the past 90 days, Corps officials say that they can’t release the excess water all at once downstream without causing problems further south.

Corps Spokesman Billy Birdwell said they will also be generating more electricity.

“We are going to be bringing the water levels down because of all the rain, but we have to have some place to put it,” Birdwell said. “And we will be generating electricity pretty hard.”

For the past week, the Corps has been generating up to 1050 megawatts of power at Lake Hartwell daily.

Another Corps Spokesman, Russell Wicke, said the spillway gates will likely remain open for five to seven days, until water from the recent storm event can be safely evacuated from the reservoirs making room for future storms.

Birdwell did say that earlier in the fall, the Corps predicted this weather and began preparing for it.

“This is actually a mega EL Nino pattern,” Birdwell said. “And we have been expecting it and we are expecting even more rain this winter.”

Wicke said although high volumes of rainfall are causing these conditions, water managers said there is no cause for concern, and that the dams and reservoirs were designed and equipped to handle this kind of event and are operating well within their operating parameters.

However, officials advise caution near the Savannah River below Thurmond Dam for the next several days.