Hampton Topics: Don't forget

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Tallapoosa River Topics

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	Name:	streamgager -
	Subject:	Don't forget
	Date:	7/5/2007 7:42:04 PM

The upland lakes in South Carolina are experiencing the same thing. It's been that way it seems for a few years. There are six waterfalls that flow into Lake Jocassee and last August the lake was down so low and everything so dry you had to hike into the woods to find the waterfall where you always could pull your boat right up underneath them. Even on the coast, our river systems are very low..in fact I measured 'zero' flow at a creek in the Francis Marion National Forest that I had always had flow before. We could go off on a global warming tangent discussion, but I'll leave that for another time.

As I mentioned I work for the Water resource Division of the US Geological Survey. We are strictly a scientific data collection agency with no regulatory powers. We often check to see that minimum flows that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requires. Sometimes those minimum flows ( for the Tallapoosa R.) are necessary to promote aquatic health and fish reproduction in the rivers below hydro dams and sometimes hydro dams need to run more often to put more energy on the grid....all draining the Lake. The alternative might be a coal producing plant..and I don't think you really want that.

Our web site for the state of Alabama, shows the inflow of the lake Tallapoosa R. nr. Horseshoe Bend at only 70 cfs (in the %5 low flow %tile), while the outflow is 2,400 cfs (40%). So the lake will continue to drop steadily until there is some real precip. We all need a little of Texas and the great plains rains!!!

http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/?m=real&r=al&w=real%2Cmap