TVA opens spillways at its biggest dam
For the first time in any summer in five years, the Tennessee Valley Authority is spilling water at most of its major storage reservoirs, including through the spillway tunnels at Lake Fontana, its biggest lake.
TVA spokesman Travis Brickey said Friday that Lake Fontana rose nearly 5 feet above its normal summertime level this week after parts of western North Carolina were deluged with 13 to 15 inches of rain over the past week or so.
“We’re trying to bring our reservoirs back to normal summertime levels after heavy rains all week,” he said. “Usually at this time of the year, we are trying to reach our summertime lake levels, but we’ve had a lot of rain.”
TVA was spilling water at eight of its nine mainstream dams and at many of its upstream reservoirs, so Hickey cautioned boaters and others on the Tennessee River this weekend to be aware of the extra flow of the river because of the recent rains.