I recently read an article in the newest FlyFisherman about it and think I saw a thread somewhere with a discussion about it. It sounds like an awesome fishery. I have little interest in it because I’m not able to travel that far to fish most of the time but I thought I’d mention what I was watching right now.
ON HistoryHD, there is an episode of “Mega Disasters” about poor dam quality. Much of the show has been about Wolf Creek Dam and how the Corp is working feverishly to bring it up to code to prevent a break!(With the rest about general poor dam quality and a few other examples) How accurate is this for those concerned? This show is NEW (2008). According to the show, communities all the way to Nashville would be devastated by a failure. Stating that many of them would be 100% under water, largely due to the fact that the reservoir is the “largest East of the Mississippi”.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is not given to overreaction or sensationalism. While they are not perfect recent history and their past history bears out their good reputation. The Corps of Engineers warned us that our levy system on the Susquehanna River was inadequate to handle a major flood in the late 1960’s. In 1972 we found out how right they were when the remnants of Hurricane Agnes laid waste to almost all of the Susquehanna, Delaware, Allegheny, Ohio, Monongahela, Potomac and other rivers.
They warned us years ago about the inadequacies of the levy systems on the Mississippi and around New Orleans too. It is because of the skill of the Corps of Engineers that Pittsburgh and many other communities downstream of the Kinzua (pronounced Kin-zoo-a or Kin-zoo) Dam on the Allegheny River above Warren Pennsylvania weren’t wiped out in 1972. They intentionally over engineered the dam, as they do all of their projects, with a good safety margin. The dam was under incredible stress from the load of water it was forced to hold back. The reservoir surpassed the maximum load for the dam and it held! The Corp of Engineers claims the dam could have held another 3 inches of rainfall before ultimate failure. It was close.
I live about 1 mile from the Cumberland, near Gallatin, Tn. The Corps of Engineers, is working on the Wolf Creek Dam and the Center Hill Dam. The Center Hill Dam feeds the Caney Fork River. The Caney Fork joins the Cumberland About 20 miles East of Gallatin.
It’s a great fishery tail water and warm water.
Work is going on at both dams and water levels have been lowered until repares are made.
From what I have seen and heard from the Corps, they have held some other lake levels lower than normal so that they can shut off the dams and keep some of the tributaries from pouring into the Cumberland, should Wolf Creek suffer a catastrophic failure. Also, Nashville should have at least a couple of day’s lead time (4, I think) before flood hits. That would give the Corps a chance to dump an awful lot of water out of Old Hickory Lake. That would pretty much contain the flodd from that point downstream. The local newpaper printed the projected-flood map months ago. Things would be bad for parts of Gallatin and Hendersonville, locally. Ron, it isn’t how far from the river you live, it’s how high above it you live. I hope that your 10 yards plus above it.
The Old Hickory Dam is a pretty solid chunk of concrete, not an earth embankment. The Corps said that it could withstand being over-topped by a potential flood, if it came to that.
The Gallatin Steam Plant, a major electric power provider, would probably be lost. I have heard rumors that the Corps plans to use the hot air from state politicians (Nashville is the capital of Tennessee) to heat steam in a reserve power plant. If Wolf Creek Dam has to go, let’s hope that it goes in an election year…
