Hartwell Lake Breaks December Record for Rainfall/Lake Level

Lake Hartwell is beginning the new year almost two feet above full pool and some five feet over the winter draw down level of 656 ft above mean sea level.

All the rain we’ve had the past two months has Corps of Engineers water managers scrambling to keep the lake from overflowing its reserve.

Savannah District Corps Spokesman Jeremy Buddemeier said Monday Hartwell Lake recorded a total of 11.96 inches of rainfall in December – the highest for December since 1952.

“It’s significant just in terms of statistical variance,” he said. “This isn’t even technically one of the rainier months. We average at Lake Hartwell 5.25 inches for the month of December.”

Both Lakes Russell and Thurmond are also at capacity.

Thurmond and Russell collected 9.25 and 9.92 inches respectively in December versus their normal 4.1 and 4.2-inch averages.

Buddemeier says that is creating a challenge for water managers who have to keep Hartwell from overflowing its reserve while not sending too much water downstream towards Augusta.

“We manage them (reservoir lakes) as a system. And so when we’re getting so much rain, we basically have to create room for it at Russell and Thurmond. So our stakeholders below Thurmond are feeling the amount of water because they’re getting a lot of rain and then we have to release from Thurmond as well,” Buddemeier explained.

Another issue is the fact that technically we’re nowhere near the spring rainy season, which usually hits around the end of February into March.

That’s typically when the reservoir lakes refill from the winter draw down.

But it was three years ago around this time that heavy rainfall caused the Corps to have to open the spillways at Hartwell Dam.

At this point, however, Buddemeier doesn’t believe Corps engineers are going to have to do that.

“The guide curve should be at 656 ft msl,” he said. “Well we’re at 661 ft msl. So we’re going to gradually bring it back down and as the guild curve moves up, we’ll meet it. We’re currently scheduled to meet it around mid-February at around 657 ft msl or so. So, we’re not going to do anything drastic. We’re going to try to avoid releasing through the spillway gates for as long as possible.”

However, if we continue to get the kind of significant rainfall we’ve been experiencing, Buddemeier said the Corps may be forced to open the spillways at Hartwell Dam in the coming weeks.