Corps to Continue Releasing Water from Savannah River Dams
Corps of Engineers opens Lake Hartwell Dam spillways this morning to bring lake level down from flood stage.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to open the spillways at Hartwell Dam at regular intervals for the next several weeks until the lake is back down to full pool.
This time last year, Hartwell lake was almost 12 feet below normal.
But Monday night, the heavy rainfall pushed the level on Hartwell lake to 665 ft msl – five feet above full pool.
That led the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg to declare Hartwell Lake at flood stage early Tuesday, and prompted the Corps to open the spillway at the dam Tuesday. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7sbD9pbK90)
“For the next several weeks water will be released from the flood storage pools at Thurmond, Russell and Hartwell Dams until all flood storage pools drop to near guide curve for this time of year,” said Corps spokesman Billy Birdwell. “Or 660 ft.-msl at Hartwell, 475 ft-msl at Russell and 330 ft.-msl at Thurmond. The flood storage pools are the capacity of the reservoirs above “full pool.” The flood storage pools temporarily store excess storm runoff in the three-lake Savannah River Basin system.”
News of the spillway opening at the dam Tuesday morning brought hundreds of visitors to the dam, along with their children and dogs, to see the sight. 
The Corps normally only opens the spillways once every three years for test purposes.
“Our first concern is public safety,” said Corps hydrologist Stan Simpson. “We activated our standard plans for reducing reservoir levels with controlled releases first through our generation turbines. When more rains came Monday night above Hartwell Lake we needed to increase our releases by passing water through the spillway gates – also part of our standard water management plans.”
“We also must consider the possibility of additional rainfall that could hit our area as tropical storm Chantal approaches the East Coast,” Simpson said. Flood risk reduction is a primary mission of the reservoirs.
Birdwell said a planned spillway test, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, will go on, he said.