Heavy discharge flows from the sluice gates at the Bluestone Dam in Summers County on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. Bluestone Lake is at near record levels from New River storm water in North Carolina that was dumped by Hurricane Helene.
Bluestone Dam, the 75-year-old Summers County flood control project, might well have saved Charleston and other downriver communities from catastrophic flooding from the epic rainfall recently produced by Hurricane Helene.
Floodwater spawned by the storm in the New RiverƵs North Carolina headwaters area last week have raised the level of Bluestone Lake more than 80 feet since last Tuesday, bringing the reservoir to one of its highest levels since the dam became operational in 1949.
Heavy discharge flows from the sluice gates at the Bluestone Dam in Summers County on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. Bluestone Lake is at near record levels from New River storm water in North Carolina that was dumped by Hurricane Helene.
Courtesy of U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers
The lake reached its record-high pool level of 1,506.04 feet on April 6, 1960.
The pool elevation at Bluestone Lake peaked at 1,493.49 feet at about 10 a.m. Monday, after the dam captured five days of excess stream flow from the New and, to a much lesser degree, the Bluestone River.
ƵThe dam is performing as it was designed to,Ƶ Brian Maka, public affairs chief for the U.S. Army Corps of EngineersƵ Huntington District, which manages Bluestone Dam and Lake, said Monday. ƵNow, we need it to get the level of Bluestone Lake down enough for it to be able to accept water from the next storm event.Ƶ
Monday morning, for the first time in five days, outflow of water from Bluestone Dam exceeded inflow, with the dam discharging water at a rate of 26,042 cubic feet per second, while water was flowing into the lake at the rate 20,016 cubic feet per second. At its peak Saturday, more than 170,000 cubic feet per second of water was flowing into Bluestone Lake.
The normal summer pool level for Bluestone Lake is 1,410 feet.
The rapid inflow of water produced flooding at the Bluestone Bridge boat launch and its parking area, the Bluestone State Park campground and the Bluestone Wildlife Management AreaƵs Indian Creek campground.
The Bluestone Dam on the New River in Summers County is shown on Sept. 2, 2024.
CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE | Gazette-Mail
History of the dam
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized construction of the flood control dam in 1935, with Congress approving funding for its construction in 1936 and 1938. Construction began in 1941 but was suspended during World War II. It resumed in 1946, with the dam becoming operational in 1949.
A Dam Safety Ƶsurance Mega Project, approved in 1998, is now in its fifth and final phase of construction. The project includes increasing outflow capacity by building an auxiliary spillway, stabilizing the the dam with bedrock anchors and upgrading and armoring the damƵs stilling basin. Construction is expected to be complete by 2029.
More than $500 million has been spent on safety upgrades to the half-mile-long, 165-foot-tall dam, which cost $30 million (in 1940 dollars) to build.
The dam controls about half of the Kanawha RiverƵs volume as it passes through Charleston. According to the Corps of Engineers, dam failure could put 165,000 downstream lives at risk in Hinton, Montgomery, Charleston and other Kanawha Valley cities, and cost more than $20 billion in property damage.
Rick Steelhammer is a features reporter. He can be reached at 304-348-5169 or rsteelhammer@hdmediallc.com. Follow @ on Twitter.
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