1962 420mw Hartwell Dam on Savannah River near Hartwell Ga

(Satellite, 156 photos)

Street View, Jun 2023

USACE

The concrete section is 1,900' (579m) long, and the earth part is 17,852' (5,441m, 3.4 miles) long. The top of the dam is 204' (31.7m) above the Savannah Riverbed. "The penstocks are 214 ft. [65m] long, made of boilerplate steel, and are 24 ft. [7.3m] in diameter. Water flows through the penstocks at a rate of 2 – 3 million gallons per minute." [USACE_facts]

1 cubic foot = 7.48 gallons [USACE_conversion] 

2 million gallons per minute = 33,333 gallons per sec = 4,456cfs

 

USACE Facebook
Aerial footage of our Hartwell Dam spillway test from our friends at the Anderson County Sheriff's Office - Emergency Management SC.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, South Atlantic Division I U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters
Andy Michel shared
Really awesome Spillway Tainter Gate video!!!

 

IndependentMail

The lake is already (Mar 2024) above summer level, so the lake will not be significantly impacted by the test release. [fox5vegas, near the end]

Four of the 10 photos from their photo gallery:

a

b

c

d

March 2024: First gate starts opening at 1:40. At 4:15, someone says they will open all gates 4' (1.2m), and then they will go back and open the first and last gate to 6' (1.8m). This will be the largest opening the dam has seen. The second gate starts at 5:40. The third starts at 6:49. Fourth: 8:22. Sixth: 11:30. Fifth: 12:22. 7th: 14:50. 8th: 15:22. 9th: 16:37. 10th: 18:39. 11th: 19:17. 12: 20:23.

21:04 Craig Childress Johnson video @ 20:25
This is a 21 minute video of the entire opening sequence of the Hartwell Dam flood gates. This release has nothing to do with present lake levels. It is the largest release from this dam since being built. The siren during the first minute of the video is a very loud warning the water is going to rise very fast and furious.
Steve Specht: This a periodic test of the gate motors and the hydraulics and the backup systems. The level may drop as much as 1 inch!

Michael Broyles commented on the above video
A very similar test/release was done in July '13 after extremely heavy and extended Summer rains and the pool level hit up over 665 ft. Very rare event for Summer at Hartwell. I took the photo below. Notice the walkway at the foot of the river. The water ended up breaching the walking surface of that.