10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

Flood creates historic high marks for Summersville Lake

 

SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — The June 23rd storm which caused widespread flooding across West Virginia was an event for the record books at Summersville Dam as well.

“At the onset of that storm, there were levels of in flow coming into this lake that had never been seen before,” said Corps of Engineers Project Manager Toby Wood. “About  103,000 CFS (cubic feet per second) coming into the lake.”

The level of the lake rose to 41 feet above flood stage, which was the second highest on record for the damn since it opened in 1966.  The record was that year when the dam opened and water at that time was pouring over the spillway.

Summersville Dam was built with the idea of flood protection to communities down stream.  However, this event was very unique and even with the dam, the level of rainfall caused flooding both above and below the lake.

“We were operating the dam as normal when the rain event came,” said Wood. “We were monitoring the downstream gauges and as soon as we saw they were approaching flood levels we shut the dam back to minimum flow.”

But the dam isn’t like a water faucet.  You can just turn a knob and turn off the downstream flow.

“We’re not able to shut the dam from a higher flow to minimum in one operation,” said Wood. “We have parameters, and we actually pushed those a little and we made two foot per hour reductions and got it down to minimum flow just as quickly as we could.”

The lake itself bloated and rose into all of the recreational facilities.  Boat rams and campgrounds were submerged ahead of the biggest weekend of the year.  Upstream tons of debris started floating into the water.   The Long Point Marina came off of the poles which typically hold it in place.

“The marina is supported by steel poles and the docks ride up and down the poles and the marina lifted up off those pools.  It was flowing around kind of hanging by a thread being held by cables and anchors only,” said Wood.

Volunteers helped reposition the marina as the lake level began to drop. The operation amounted to threading a number of needles at the same time.  Somehow, Wood said they were able to get the precarious task accomplished with no damage to the dock or the marina.

The same could not be said for many of the lakes facilities.   Restroom facilities at Battle Run will need repair and there will be months of cleanup work ahead.   Debris on the water will be one of the big jobs ahead for the Corps of Engineers.

“We’ll use floating booms to surround it and keep it where it is,” said Wood. “Later on this season we’ll begin moving it down the lake and when we get to winter pool, we’ll separate the non-combustibles and the driftwood and burn the drift.”





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