Corps Taking Wait and See Approach With Spillways at Hartwell

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is playing it by ear when it comes to opening spillways at the Hartwell and Russell Dams.

Last Wednesday, the Corps’ Savannah District office announced it would open all three spillways, at Hartwell, Russell and Thurmond lakes, in order to bring the lake levels back down to the winter guide curves.

However, only Lake Thurmond’s spillways were opened and remain open as of Tuesday.

Corps Spokesman Billy Birdwell said that is because Hartwell and Russell Lakes, while in flood storage stage, are not quite high enough to warrant the spillways being opened.

“We don’t know if or when we will be opening the spillways at Hartwell or Russell, but we won’t do it before we hit 665 ft. msl at Hartwell or 480 ft msl at Lake Russell,” Birdwell said Monday. “All three lakes are in flood storage stage. As soon as they go above their summer pool, we consider that in flood storage.”

Another indicator as to whether they can open the spillways at Lakes Hartwell or Russell has to do with levels at Thurmond Lake.

Birdwell said they can’t open the spillways further up the Savannah River Basin unless Thurmond’s levels can come down significantly.

“It depends on how fast we can get space down at Thurmond,” he said. “We have to have some space at Thurmond before we can send water down stream. Otherwise we’re in trouble down in Thurmond.”

As of Monday morning, the level at Lake Hartwell was 664.79 feet above mean sea level.

That is more than eight and half feet above the winter guide curve level of 656.13 feet and almost five feet over the summer full pool level of 660 feet.

Russell Lake’s level Monday stood at 479.76 feet, which almost five feet above the summer full pool level of 475 feet.

Typically in the winter, the Corps draws water down in the lakes to make way for winter snow and rainfall.

Furthermore, Birdwell said that even though we’ve had no rain for several days, the lakes are still rising.

“We are still experiencing inflows, so they (water levels) are still coming up,” Birdwell said. “But we have to be careful how much water we send out of Thurmond because if we let too much water out, we can contribute to local flooding downstream.”

According to Birdwell, the Corps is monitoring the lake levels hour by hour regarding what to do with the spillways.

Birdwell said anyone needing more information, can go to the Savannah River District’s Facebook page or online to the Hartwell Dam and Lake Web site.