Corps Increases Outflows from Lakes Hartwell, Thurmond, and Russell This Week

Despite the two spillway releases last week and an increase in outflow over the weekend, Hartwell Lake is still over four feet above full pool.

As of late Monday, the lake level at Hartwell  stood at 664.6 ft msl.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Billy Birdwell said Monday the Corps has stepped up its program of outflow from the lake in an attempt to get the reservoirs lakes back down to the full pool mark.

“We are bringing Thurmond down first, then we will bring down Russell down and Hartwell Lake down last,” Birdwell said. “We will reduce the levels at Thurmond first, then gradually work our way up to Hartwell.”

Birdwell said the plan is in keeping with the Corps water control manual and intentional.

Beginning today, Birdwell said the Corps is targeting outflows of  15,000 cubic feet per second  for Hartwell Lake the rest of the week, but he said that doesn’t mean the spillways will be opening.  The Corps will be increasing its power production as a way to reduce the lake level.

Over the weekend, Birdwell said the Corps kept the turbines running at Hartwell Lake to get the lake level down.

“We were running over 13,000 cfs on Monday.  And normally we don’t generate power on Saturdays and Sundays, but we did this weekend; 5,800 cfs on Saturday and 10,500 cfs on Sunday,” he said.

As power is generated, water passes through the dam and lake levels are reduced.

“Typically we would be running much lower discharges through the turbines than 15,000 cfs,” Birdwell said. “That’s a significant increase in the amount of water that we’re sending through the turbines that power the generators.”

But according to Birdwell, it will be a long time before Hartwell Lake is back down to 600ft msl.  That’s because the lake is still receiving significant inflows from its tributaries.

“On Monday, we actually  had more inflow than outflow,” he said. “We had 13,500 cfs expected for inflow today and only 13,100 cfs for outflows. Even though we’re targeting 15,000 cfs, outflows, we’re still getting 10,000 cfs inflows or better for the rest of the week.”

Birdwell said that means the lake level will come down very slowly.