Ebb and flow

Keeping water flowing through the Tennessee River to produce electricity, supply thirsty towns and meet the needs of industries and commercial navigation is typically a balancing act for TVA.

With much of the Southeast in a severe to extreme drought, managing the river's water resources has become a tight-wire act for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The lack of rain is causing TVA to walk a fine line between keeping enough water flowing through the river to support aquatic life while keeping lake levels high enough for navigation and municipal and industrial users.

"The January to May period was the driest ever recorded in 118 years of record keeping for the Tennessee Valley," said TVA spokesman Gil Francis. "Our hydroelectric generation is about 50 percent of normal. We're at the lower end of our summer operating range for the main channel reservoirs. We need some rain."

By reducing water released from its dams on the Tennessee River, TVA has so far been able to maintain near normal lake levels, Francis said. Fearing a drought was developing, TVA began conserving water in February, he said.

So far, commercial navigation, municipal water systems along the Tennessee River and industries and power plants that use the water for cooling equipment have not been affected by the prolonged drought, Francis said.

Jim Loew, director of the Florence-Lauderdale Port Authority, said if water levels fall, shipping companies could be forced to load less cargo into barges to prevent them from running aground.

Placing less cargo in the barges could drive up shipping costs.

Mike Doyle, manager of the Florence Water and Gas Department, said the city's water treatment plant on Wilson Lake is having no problems receiving all of the water it needs from the Tennessee River.

"We're closely monitoring river levels and are not aware of any problems they are causing," he said.

The same cannot be said about reservoirs on tributaries of the Tennessee River.

"Most of the tributaries above Knoxville, (Tenn.) are down about 10 feet," Francis said.

"In a normal year, the tributaries would have refilled from their winter drawdown with spring rains. We didn't receive the spring rains this year and the tributaries remain below normal levels."

Shannon McKinney, administrator of the Bear Creek Development Authority, said the drought has depleted water levels in the agency's lakes in Franklin and Marion counties.

"It's the first time since TVA built the lakes in the 1960s and 1970s that we did not reach summer pool levels during the spring," McKinney said. "We just didn't have the water to bring the lakes up like we normally do."

Rainfall in the Shoals is more than 16 inches below normal for the year.

Cedar Creek Reservoir west of Russellville is more than seven feet below its normal summer level, McKinney said.

"We have some people who did not get their boats out of the lifts at their docks before the water went down last fall. Now they can't get them out because the pier does not have any water around it," he said.

All boat ramps on the Bear Creek lakes remain open, but boaters should use caution while on the lakes because of the low water levels.

"Our lakes were backed up over a lot of old roadbeds. Because the water is so low, some of those roadbeds are right below the surface," McKinney said. "You can go around the lake in your boat and all of the sudden you're in two feet of water right out in the middle of the lake when you run up on one of those old roads. People just need to slow down, and watch out for shallow water."

Phillip Cooper, an avid angler on the Bear Creek lakes, said fish are not biting as well this year, and the low water might be to blame. "We're not sure if the drought has anything to do with it or not," he said.

Instead of dwelling on problems caused by the low water levels, Cooper, a founder of the Little Bear Creek Millennium Group, if focusing on the positives. The organization, which works to improve fish habitat and water quality in Little Bear Creek Reservoir, is taking advantage of the low water to plant native aquatic vegetation in the lake west of Russellville. "We're able to plant them a lot further out in the lake than we would if the water level was up to normal. That should really make some great fishing habitat once it starts raining and water levels return to normal."

Shoals bass angler Chad Killian said the lower-than-normal water level of Pickwick Lake has not deterred anglers. He said many bass anglers are still catching large fish.

The reduced flow has caused some anglers to change how they fish on Pickwick Lake, he said.

When water levels are normal, anglers wait on water to be released from Wilson Dam to trigger a feeding frenzy in bass in upper reaches of the lake. With little water being released, anglers have had to change the baits they use and the places they fish, Killian said.

Anglers who would normally fish in the Florence and Sheffield area now travel downstream of Waterloo where bass are less dependent on water releases from Wilson Dam to trigger them to begin feeding.

Some anglers have figured out how to make bass in the upper reaches of the lake bite in the absence of water flowing from Wilson Dam and are having success when they go fishing, Killian said.

"Those bass still have to eat. We just have to figure when they're eating and where they are instead of letting the current dictate when and where we fish."

When chasing bass or other fish or just out on the water for a day of boating, boaters should be careful, said Chad Dyer of Alabama Marine Police.

"If the lake levels on the Tennessee River drop much more, rocks and stumps that are normally under water in the summer are going to start appearing.

"Someone who is not familiar with running the lakes when they are at winter levels and knows where the obstacles are will need to slow down and really be careful or they could run into a rock, stump or other obstacle that is normally covered with water in the summer."

With little water flowing though the Tennessee River, Doyle said algae could grow profusely in the water. The increased algae will cause Florence and other municipal water systems along the river to use additional chemicals at their treatment plants. Customers could notice their water having an odor and taste if algae become problematic along the Tennessee River.

Francis said the scattered showers around the Tennessee Valley the past week have done little to help refill the reservoirs.

"We could have spotty showers every day from now until September and still not be able to bring the reservoirs up to their normal levels," Francis said.

"The rain from the spotty showers soaks into the ground and does not run off into the reservoirs. What we need is three valley-wide rain events of about two inches each to get us where we need to be. If we were to get six6 inches all it once, it would be hard to hang on to all the water. But if we could get it two inches at a time, we could hold on to the water and refill the reservoirs."

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.