1940 17mw Tom Miller Dam and Lake Austin on Colorado River in Austin, TX

(Satellite)

lcra
The dam is 1,590 (485m) long and 100.5' (30.6m) high.
The total discharge capacity is 108kcfs.

Street View, May 2025

Jul 19, 2026:

Facebook Reel

Facebook Reel

The water spilling out of a partially open gate is white instead of green.

Facebook Reel

Facebook Reel

Facebook Reel

1942 108mw Mansfield Dam and Lake Travis on Colorado River near Marshall Ford, TX

(Satellite)

Street View, Mar 2025

lcra
"Lake Travis is the only lake in the Highland Lakes chain specifically designed to hold back floodwaters. Lake Travis is considered full for water supply purposes at 681 feet msl. At that level, the lake contains 1.1 million acre-feet of water. Lake Travis is designed to hold an additional 776,062 acre-feet of floodwaters in what is referred to as the flood pool."
The dam is 7,089 (2,160m) long and 278' (85m) tall. It has a generating capacity of 108mw. Spillway elevation is 714', and the top of the dam is 750'.
The total discharge capacity is more than 131kcfs.

2025:

Facebook Reel

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2026 also got a lot of rain. In some places, this year's record broke the record set just last year. Lake Travis is now 100% full, the first time since 2019.

cbsaustin
One floodgate was opened early on Jul 18, and the second one was expected to open on Jul 19.

Boating is not allowed on the lakes while some gates are open.

CBS Austin posted
 https://cbsaustin.com/.../lcra-opens-floodgates-at-tom...
"Lake Travis, which forms behind Mansfield Dam, was expected to rise to a range of 685 to 686 feet above mean sea level through the day Saturday, LCRA said. The lake reached 'full' capacity of 681 feet Friday night for the first time since July 2019, after rising 9 feet in 24 hours, according to CBS Austin meteorologists."
[So the lake got 5' above conservation level.]

When two floodgates were open.

Facebook Reel

This water release was the 9th time since it was completed in 1941. [reddit]

Even though the dam has 24 floodgates, the most that have been used is six in 1957. [lcra_rehabilitation]

Kristen Currie posted
As of 9:40PM, Lake Travis is officially at 100% full. First time in 7 years.

1976,1989 29mw Kaw Dam on Arkansas River near Ponca City, OK

(Satellite)

The dam was finished in 1976, the hydroelectric plant was built 1987-89. It has one vertical Kaplan turbine with a head of 76' (23m) and a rating of 29mw. The peak rating is 36.7 MVA. [ompa]

35kcfs

Facebook Reel

Most of the dam is earth fill.

Street View, Mar 2026

The spillway has 8 radial gates.

Street View, Mar 2026

I see a couple of outlet conduits in the above view. Are both of them open in this view, or just the near one?

password 123, Jun 2024

ompa, p1

ompa, p2

ompa, p3

I think the pipe coming out of the building is a "slip stream nozzle" that was added in 1995 as one of the "improvements to increase the dissolved oxygen levels in the water being discharged from the Kaw hydro power facilities." [ompa, p3]

Ray, Jul 2024

1910 4.5mw Lake Byllesby Dam on Cannon River near Cannon Falls, MN

(Satellite)

"The Lake Byllesby Dam was built in 1910....The concrete dam is more than 1,100–feet [335m] long and more than 60–feet [18m] high from its base with nearly 400 feet [123m] of spillway." [dakota]

Kraemer North America posted

Kraemer North America is excited to share that we are featured in the May 2026 issue of Hydro Leader Magazine .

Check out pages 32–34 to hear from Mike Rice Kraemer’s Business Development Lead, as he discusses Kraemer’s work, partnerships, and collaboration within the hydro industry.

Read the full May issue and our article here: https://hydroleadermagazine.com/volume-7-issue-5-may.../...

[Just the photo has something to do with this dam.]

Trail View, Oct 2018

Boldt installed "two new double-regulated, 2.25 MW Z-Turbines (Saxo-Type) and generators. The upgraded generating units double the output, are more efficient and match site head and flow conditions. " [boldt]

Given the horizontal shafts, this would have been the old equipment.

house

The image in the lower-right corner of this collage is the bottom of a Francis turbine. But all of the other photos I saw in the Google search results were of a Kaplan (propeller) turbine. So, someone must have grabbed the wrong photo when making the collage.

LitostrojPower

A source stated that the "Saxo" name comes from the discharge tube looking like a saxophone.

EngineeringMechanics

194mw Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ (SKQ)/Kerr Dam on Flathead River near Polson, MT

(Satellite)

GreasedMonkey75, Feb 2019

"The concrete arch-type dam stands at 204 feet high, which is 54 feet higher than Niagara Falls....The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are the first tribes in the nation to own and operate a major hydropower facility." The three units have a capacity of 194mw. [visitmt]

Melanie Blair, Aug 2017

I can't determine the design of the spillway gates. Are they sluice gates that go down?

Brad Lane, Jun 2021

The reservoir is called Flathead Lake.

MontanasFlaheadLake
YouTube Video

The powerhouse is on the west side of the little peninsula.

Satellite

Facebook Reel

Facebook Reel

They have probably opened more gates since May 31 since the reservoir was full. I think that is what the first reel is showing.

USACE

1916 24mw Elephant Butte/Engle Dam on Rio Grande River near Truth or Consequences, NM

(Satellite)

Street View, Apr 2024

The outlet conduit in the spillway is running.

usbr

"Elephant Butte Dam and Reservoir (originally called Engle Dam) is on the Rio Grande, 125 miles north of El Paso, Texas, can store 2,210,298 acre-feet of water to provide irrigation and year-round power generation. This is a concrete gravity dam 301 feet [92m] high and 1,674 feet [510m] long including the spillway. It contains 618,785 cubic yards of concrete. The dam was completed in 1916, but storage operation began in 1915.

"The power system consists of a 24,300-kilowatt hydroelectric powerplant at Elephant Butte Dam. A system consisting of 490 miles of 115-kilovolt transmission line and 11 substations totaling 81,750 kilovolt-amperes, which was developed and operated by the Rio Grande Project until 1977, has been sold to a private electric company.

"Geology

"Foundation: Hard, sound, fissured sandstone in irregular beds, containing pockets and interbedded strata of friable shale and numerous small springs throughout foundation area"

6:52 video @ 3:13
History of Elephant Butte Dam
It can hold over 2 million acre-feet of water.
When built, it was the second largest irrigation dam in the world, and it created the largest man-made reservoir ever built. [@ 1:17]

Facebook Reel

Same Reel

Falls, Dam, 2.6mw Power House, Mill and Bridges on North Branch Muskoka River in Bracebridge, ON

Falls: (Satellite)

Railroad Bridge: (Satellite)

Road Bridge: (Satellite)

Dam: (Satellite)

Power House: (Satellite, this is the intake control structure. This is the power house.)

Mill: (Satellite?)

It looks like they maintain their truss bridge.

Facebook Reel

Some docks and walkways are under water, but a good power wash should restore them.

Same Reel

John de Freitas, Jul 2024

LakelandGeneration

LakelandGeneration_history
"In 1894, the Town of Bracebridge established itself as the first municipality in Canada to own and operate a water-power electrical generating station." This was called Bird's Mill and produced 84kw.
"A second turbine was added that pumped water up a main street watermain."
In 1902, a 300kw unit was installed, and second 300kw unit was installed in 1905.

The 600kw station had a head of 10m (33'). "In 2012 the facility completed a series of upgrades, which have expanded the facility’s capacity to 2.6 MW.  Upgrades to the facility involved modifications to the existing powerhouse, turbine and generator replacement, installation of a new penstock, electrical system upgrades and deepening of both the intake and tailrace channels.With significant technology advances in the past century, the renovated facility now boasts one (1) Norcan S-Type Hydraulic Turbine as well as one (1) SAB Horizon Brushless Synchronous Generator, which are controlled by a Rockwell Automation ControlLogix system." [OntarioRiversAlliance]

nacsworld
The 2012 upgrade replaced all of the power generation equipment without damaging the existing buildings, "all while working in close proximity to a pristine water environment with stringent environmental protection measures and fish habitat protection." The flow was increased from 10m3 to 27m3 (353cfs to 953cfs).

NorcanHydro, cropped
"We supplied...a runner size of 83 in., 2108 mm."

NorcanHydro

NorcanHydro

Somewhere I saw that the upgrade cost $11m. but now I can't find that reference.

Ferdinand Lapuz, Sep 2023

Shradhdha M, Sep 2024