1965 Kinzua Dam on Allegheny River and 508mw Seneca Pumped Storage near Warren, PA

(Satellite)

USACE, Pittsburg District

Greg Eakin, Aug 2022

 

USACE, Pittsburgh District posted

A gorgeous photo of our very own Kinzua Dam by one of our visitors!

The visitor center at #Kinzua is now open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

The project’s flood control capabilities were dramatically demonstrated during the June 1972 floods resulting from Tropical Storm Agnes when an estimated $247 million in flood damages were prevented. Since its completion in 1965, Kinzua has prevented flood damages estimated to be in excess of $1.2 billion.

Find out more about this towering beauty on our website!

LINK:

https://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/.../kinzua-dam-allegheny...

📸 by Angela Cole-Tatum Curran

Kinzua Dam shared
Roger Boardley: I hunt for fossils not far from there.

Kinzua Dam posted

Brian Hope, Oct 2003

Jacob Poucher 0:22 video, Jul 2019

USACE Pittsburgh District posted

In the next two days, the #PittsburghDistrict will release a controlled amount of water from the Kinzua Dam at the #AlleghenyReservoir, known as a “spring pulse.”

The spring pulse, planned to begin Thursday, March 30 and end Friday, March 31, will help our biologists test environmental flows for the Allegheny River.

You may notice an increase in water elevation and increased flow on the Allegheny River from the pulse, but we want to assure the public this is a controlled release.

Spring pulses mimic the natural hydrologic frequency, magnitude and duration of spring rain events to support aquatic life and vegetation. Additionally, spring pulses increase aquatic habitat for species and encourage ecologic growth through seed dispersal, moisture regimes and sediment distribution. 

The corps will slowly increase Kinzua Dam’s current discharge from 9,000 cubic feet per second (CFS) to 15,000 CFS for eight hours before returning the discharge to 9,000 CFS. 

If a CFS doesn’t mean anything to you, a basketball would fit inside a cubic foot. So imagine 9,000 to 15,000 basketballs shooting out every second!

(For reference, the photo posted shows Kinzua Dam releasing approximately 3,500 CFS)

During this spring pulse, the Allegheny River discharge in West Hickory will reach an intended 25,000 CFS and the river stage will rise from 7.5 feet to a maximum of 9 feet, well below the 14-foot flood stage and within Kinzua Dam’s water control-manual authorization.

This spring pulse was modeled by the district’s water management team to ensure it will not negatively impact downstream-flood risk, river navigation or the Allegheny Reservoir’s summer pool elevation. The Allegheny Reservoir’s water elevation is currently at 1,329 feet, two feet above summer pool (1,327 feet). 

Conducting the spring pulse is part of the Sustainable Rivers Program (SRP). The SRP was established in 1998 and is an ongoing national partnership between the Corps of Engineers and the Nature Conservancy. The SRP seeks to improve rivers’ ecological quality through changes in water infrastructure operations that may restore or protect ecosystems while meeting the congressionally-authorized purposes. 

Additionally, the SRP focuses on determining environmental-flow requirements for rivers and creating operating plans for dams to incorporate these flows. These flows are scientific prescriptions that work to mimic the timing, quantity and quality of water flow that must occur downstream of dams to sustain critical ecological functions.

Questions about the spring pulse can be addressed to Marion Divers (412-395-7479) or Carl Nim (412-395-7160).

Three comments showing additional outlet flows.

1, 9 kcfs

2, 15 kcfs

3, 15 kcfs at a different angle

It appears that this level of output is almost always flowing.

Monica Stanford, Oct 2022

This dam has several levels of output.

Brian Hope, Oct 2003

Steven Krauza, Jan 2021

"The Kinzua Dam is one of the largest dams east of the Mississippi River....There was considerable opposition to the dam, the flooding behind the dam forced numerous communities to move and thousands of acres of fertile farmland to be buried underwater. More than 600 families were displaced by the dam, including those in the town of Kinzua and Corydon in Pennsylvania and Onoville and Quaker Bridge, located in New York. Nearly one-third of the ceded territory of the Seneca Nation, granted under the Treaty of Canandaigua, signed by President Washington, was condemned from the building of the dam, an area totaling 10,000 acres. The government set aside 305 acres of land for the Seneca resettlement in the New York communities of Steamburg and Jimerson Town, to partially compensate for the loss of the communities." [usda]

AlleghenyFront
This web page describes the impact on the Seneca Nation in detail. It also has a map that shows the powerhouse is the "Seneca Pumped Storage Generating Station."

I had noticed a circle of water on top of a mountain in some of the photos of the dam. That is the storage for the Seneca Pumped Storage Generating Station. As we transition from fossil fuel to renewables, storage capacity becomes even more important.

Satellite

clui
The storage reservoir is 800' above the 450mw powerhouse, and it is a half-mile in diameter. It went online in 1970.

Note that there are many more contour lines above the dam than are below the dam. So the head from the storage reservoir is much higher than the head from the dam reservoir.

1971 Clarendon and 1966 Cornplanter Bridge Quads @ 24,000

In fact, this photo shows the storage is much higher than the lake.

lehigh
"During high demand times, water is pumped from the Seneca Pumped Storage Facility to the Allegheny Reservoir. This helps provide power when people need it most."
[I have a couple of issues with the first statement. First of all, it is not pumped when generating, it simply allowed to flow down the pipes. Secondly, I'm sure that the water goes directly to the turbine and not the the Allegheny Reservoir using the same pipes that are used to pump the water up to the storage during low demand times.]

This source quotes the capacity as 508mw.

On average, it generates 570gwh per year. [dbpedia]

And this source quotes a capacity of 469mw.

And gem says 438mw with three units.