Hartwell Spillway Gates To Close Today, Corps Says

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to close the spillways at Hartwell Dam today after three days of allowing thousands of cubic feet of water to flow from Hartwell Lake downstream.

Late Friday, Corps Spokesman Russell Wicke issued a press release announcing the opening of the spillways.

By Friday night, the heavy rainfall, sleet and snow pushed the lake levels to over 662 feet above mean sea level, but with lake levels now lower downstream at Lakes Russell and Thurmond, the Corps was able to open Hartwell’s spillways and release more water.

Sunday afternoon, Wicke said the level at Hartwell Lake was coming down as planned.

Earlier this month, the Corps opened the floodgates at Thurmond Dam for almost two weeks to bring water levels down.

At that time, the Corps was waiting for Lake Hartwell to reach the point of 665 feet above mean sea level before opening the spillways because Thurmond and Russell lakes were still very high.

Now that levels have come down on all three reservoir lakes, the plan is to close the spillways at Hartwell Dam sometime today.

The winter guide curve level at Lake Hartwell is 656 feet above mean sea level.

Wicke said it’s not clear yet, just how far down they will let Hartwell Lake get before closing the floodgates.

“We have a lot more water storage capacity now than we did a few weeks ago,” said Wicke, who added the Corps probably will not drop it all the way down to 656, but will try to get it as close to the guide curve as possible.

This was only the third time in the history of Hartwell Dam that the spillways have been opened.

The last time was in the spring of 2013.

Before that it was back in the 1960’s.