Unprecedented water releases on tap at Lake Cumberland as water level inches toward record
Managers at Lake Cumberland announced plans for unprecedented discharges at Wolf Creek Dam as the water level in the lake crept toward a record.
The lake hit an elevation of 750.8 feet above sea level at 6 p.m. Saturday, less than a foot below the record of 751.69 feet in May 1984, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The agency announced that on Saturday it would ramp up the volume of water being discharged from the lake from about 35,000 cubic feet per second to 45,000, and expects to increase the discharge to 60,000 by noon Sunday.
That would be by far the most water ever discharged from the lake.
The previous largest discharge was 40,000 cubic feet per second in January 1974, according to the corps.
The corps had earlier announced a plan to boost the discharge to 45,000 by Monday or Tuesday, but said Saturday that the amount of water flowing into the lake overnight was more than forecast.
“Our water managers constantly monitor how the precipitation affects lake levels and are proactive as possible to ensure we are making controlled releases to mitigate future possibilities of even larger releases,” Lt. Col. Cullen Jones, commander of the corps’ Nashville District.
The corps wants to drop the water level because the lake is reaching capacity on flood storage, according to the news release.
A total of 70 percent of the storage was being used Saturday afternoon.
There has been an average of 16.2 inches of rain this year across the Cumberland River basin, which stretches from Harlan County in Eastern Kentucky to Nashville and beyond, the corps said.
Releasing 60,000 cubic feet of water a second from the dam will fill the river channel below the mile-long structure and cause some flooding in lower areas, as well as push backwater into tributaries of the river, according to the corps.
Emergency officials in counties along the river are aware of the situation and making plans, the corps said.
H.M. Bottom, emergency manager in Russell County, said he was talking Saturday afternoon with the local power company to see if it would be necessary to shut off electricity in areas along the river and was making plans to help residents if necessary.
“We’re gonna take whatever action’s necessary,” Bottom said.
The discharge from the dam will likely cause some problems in lower areas, but it wasn’t clear Saturday if it might be necessary for some people to leave their homes to avoid being blocked in by water over roads, Bottom said.
“It was more than I thought it was gonna be,” Bottom said of the corps’ decision to boost the discharge to 60,000 cubic feet per second.
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 3:40 PM.
