Yesterday I attended a series of meetings in Nashville which dealt specifically with our drought problems in Tennessee.  First and foremost I was there to help promote a very strong effort by the local governments I represent and the Duck River Utility Commission.  Normandy Reservoir, which empties into the Duck River is literally going dry.  Currently there are about 150 cubic feet of water leaving the lake per second.  There is about 10 cubic feet a second entering the reservoir and the Duck River Utility Commission (which provides potable water to many area communities) pumps about 9 cubic feet a second out of that.    

     There has been an effort underway for quite some months to get the Tennessee Valley Authority to reduce the amount of water leaving the lake to a minimum of 120 cubic feet per second, which is usually done every year around the first of December as the reservoir naturally gets lower during winter months.  This year, however, we are several moths ahead of that customary need.  Finally, in a very strong cooperative fashion (and quite fast for government), the myriad of state and federal agencies have agreed on a plan.  Read this official letter requesting an expedited flow restriction into the Duck River.  The letter goes into a lot of good detail about potential ramifications to various species and consumers.

     We should see the flow reduce from 150 cubic feet per second to somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 cubic feet per second immediately (this week).  The state will then collect some additional baseline data, see how all the various species are faring, then move down to 120 cubic feet per second.  From this point, we will take additional data and make some simulations and predictions about the downstream effects on ever lesser flows…eventually to as low as 80 cubic feet per second.  Members of the USGS and other agencies taking the lead on providing us data all agree there is probably no real and significant rainfall anytime soon, but we never really know for sure.

Here are some other great links to get some more info:

Normandy Operating Guide; Lake Elevation Levels

U.S. Drought Chart

Duck River Utility Commission Website

Department of Environment and Conservation Letter
Regarding Normandy Reservoir Flow Release

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 5:20 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.