Monday, February 11, 2013

Sluicing water at Norris Dam


After the major rain event of mid-January, 2013, the Tennessee Valley Authority had to quickly release water from some of its tributary dams in order to recover storage space for any additional winter rainfall.  One of those tributary dams is Norris Dam on the Clinch River just below its confluence with the Powell River.  Since the reservoir behind Norris Dam was at a lower level for the winter, this meant sluicing water through the base of the dam instead of spilling it over the top of the dam.


View from parking area at base of dam

View from overlook above dam

While it isn't readily visible in the pictures, both generating units were also running around the clock to pass additional water downstream.  The additional water flow caused some interesting conditions downstream at the weir dams.


Looking along the weir dam toward Hibbs Island

White water downstream of the weir dam

Standing waves below the weir dam

The website for the Tennessee Valley Authority is http://www.tva.gov.

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