May 15, 2013
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Heavy rains suspend normal operations at Weiss Dam By SCOTT WRIGHT LEESBURG — Over the past three weeks, Alabama Power officials have measured nearly 7.5 inches of rain at the Weiss Dam Powerhouse. And that measurement was taken prior to rainfall that was forecast to move across northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia over the weekend. Last week, Weiss Dam Hydroelectric Manager Ted Pyron told The Post that amount of water coming into Weiss Lake gets him and his five-man maintenance crew to hopping. “As best we can we're going to manage the water level through power generation,” Pyron said Wednesday. “A lot of people don't understand that when we get heavy rains we have flows coming into the lake from upstream and the lake fills up. That's what we really have to monitor.” Pyron said because of the recent high flow into the Coosa River, the gates at the spillway dam—located two miles from the Powerhouse—are also open in an attempt to maintain a balanced flow at both ends of Weiss Lake. “We've got the trash gate wide open and all five of the other gates open one foot,” Pyron said. “We also have all three turbines operating at maximum capacity.” Pyron said the current “maximum capacity” only equals about 60 percent of what is possible from the turbines because the flow they can accept is limited by the water released from the spillway. Once water is released from the spillway it takes a 20-mile trip through rural Cherokee County, then passes right by the Powerhouse on its way to Gadsden. Connected to that portion of the river is a 1,000-foot channel called a “tailrace,” where water from the turbines dumps before returning to the Coosa . “We have 30-megawatt units, and we have the gates to our turbines open as wide as we can,” Pyron said. “But we can't generate at 100 percent because the tailrace is high.” Pyron said one of Alabama Power's primary—and often forgotten—duties as the steward of the Coosa River system is to manage the sometimes-significant flow of water downstream from Weiss. “A primary concern is down below us,” Pyron said. “We've got the city of Gadsden and Whorton's Bend and we have to manage that water flowing through so we don't flood those people out down there.” Pyron said projections for the next several days are hard to determine. “Our annual outage was set, the materials ordered and everything was staged. We were ready to go,” Pyron said. “And then we got a call to put off the outage because another storm came through. We don't know when things will be back to normal.” As of Friday at noon, Weiss Lake level was 563.95 ft. above sea level—normal for this time of year—according to the Alabama Power information line (1-800-LAKES-11). Projections were that at least two turbines would be running at capacity throughout the weekend. |