Lake Martin Topics: Water level
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Name:
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Osms
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Subject:
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Water level
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Date:
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7/10/2011 2:20:54 PM
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Muddauber, you are partially correct. FERC gives APCo general guidelines within which to operate each dam. The downstream flow of the Coosa and Tallapoosa are controlled more by the Corps and FERC has little to do with that other than minimum flows from Thurlow and Jordan. The Corps requires 4640 cfs below Montgomery, but it does not tell APCo which river it must come from; therefore, APCo has a great deal of freedom on when, how, and where they draw water from.
BTW, a recent quote from a senior CoE chief indicates that there is little to no navigation on the Alabama River. The river was dredged in '07 for a wood pellet plant in Selma (Lake Martin contributed several feet of its water) and the plant went bankrupt within a year--no navigation since.
And most importantly, recreation does play a large role in lake levels. Maybe in the '50s thru '70s it was a different story, but not anymore. Taxable home values around the lake approach $4 billion dollars; spending by those owners are huge factors in the economies of three counties. Power generation by all of APCo's hydro-generation amount to about 6% of total generation by APCo, which would make Martin's contribution at or less than 1%. Navigation is dead, power generation is minimal, recreation is big.
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