By Tracy Robillard, Public Affairs Specialist
Water managers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District issued a revised declaration calling for increased outflows from all three Savannah River dams on July 15, 2013.
The revised declaration increases outflows at the Thurmond Dam from 33,200 cfs to 35,565 cfs through this week. Outflows from the Russell Dam will increase from 13,000 cfs to 16,000 cfs; and outflows at the Hartwell Dam will increase from 6,800 cfs to 15,000 cfs.
The main purpose of increasing outflows is to evacuate water occupying the flood storage levels in the reservoirs and to bring them back to guide curve, or “full pool” in accordance with our water control manual. Our standard operating procedure requires us to evacuate flood storage at Thurmond first, then Russell, then Hartwell last.
Depending on the amount of rainfall we receive, it could take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months to reach guide curve at all three reservoirs. The soil remains saturated, so rain events are yielding higher volumes of runoff than normal.
During this period of high water, we will likely issue more than one declaration per week. Please continue to check Balancing the Basin for the most recent updates.
Click here to view the revised declaration 07/15/2013
Click here to view revised 10-week projection 07/15/2013
