W.Va. Lakes to Rise in Response to Ohio, Mississippi Flooding
Effects from flooding on the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers are
being felt all the way back upstream into West Virginia.
Charleston Gazette
3 May 2011
By John McCoy
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Effects from flooding on the lower Ohio and
Mississippi rivers are being felt all the way back upstream into West
Virginia.
For the next few weeks, Mountain State reservoirs will be used to hold
water that otherwise might worsen the flooding downstream. Officials
expect the waters of most West Virginia lakes to rise well above normal
levels.
Recreational boating and fishing could be affected until well after
Memorial Day.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Dave Meadows said the decision to
fill the reservoirs above normal summer levels came down late last
week, when it became apparent that flooding on the Ohio and Mississippi
could reach historic levels.
"We were projecting the lower Ohio to crest more than 2 feet above the
level it reached during the 1937 flood," said Meadows, chief of the
corps' Huntington District water resources engineering branch. "At that
point, we decided to restrict the outflows of all our flood-control
dams to minimum levels."
Problem is, water is coming into those reservoirs at
greater-than-minimum levels. The outflow Tuesday at Summersville Dam,
for example, was 198 cfs, or cubic feet per second. The flow into the
lake from the Gauley River was 1,350 cfs. The reservoir had risen
nearly 1.5 feet in the previous 24 hours, and was up nearly 6 feet in
the four days since corps officials decided to hold back the water.
Meadows expects those levels to go even higher. He said Summersville
could eventually rise another 15 feet. Sutton Reservoir, now nearly 7
feet higher than normal, could get an additional 20 to 25 feet. R.D.
Bailey Reservoir in Wyoming County, now running nearly 11 feet high,
could rise another 15 feet.
Levels at Wayne County's East Lynn and Beech Fork reservoirs are
running somewhat lower, both only 2 feet above normal. But Meadows
expects them both to rise at least another 8 feet.
"We're going to be experiencing these conditions at all of our West
Virginia [flood-control] projects but one, all of our Kentucky projects
and some of our Ohio projects," he said. "The only West Virginia
project we exempted was Bluestone, where there are dam-stability
concerns."
Meadows said he "really doesn't know" how long the lakes will have to
remain at flood levels. "When we first started, we were looking at
maybe three weeks. It will all depend on [future] rainfall, and how
quickly the Ohio and Mississippi floods recede."
Officials expect the backed-up reservoirs to have profound effects on
boating, camping and fishing at several West Virginia lakes.
C.J. Hamilton, the corps' resource manager at Summersville, said
boat-launch ramps at Salmon Run and the Summersville Lake Marina are
already closed, and that the Battle Run ramp would likely close today.
"We also expect to close the Battle Run Campground by this weekend," he
said.
News of the Summersville closures struck a hard blow to Eric Allen, who
operates the Summersville Lake Marina.
"It means we have no business," Allen said. "We're going to lose a lot
of money. Even after they do start letting [the water] down, it's going
to take some time to get back to normal and for people to get their
boats back into the water."
Allen said that if the corps' prediction of a three-week hold comes
true, boaters would be hard-pressed to launch their craft by Memorial
Day weekend, one of the year's most popular pleasure-boating events.
The news is almost as grim at Sutton Lake, where three launch ramps
have been closed so far. Only the Bee Run ramp remains open. Keith Anne
Nuckles, the ranger at Sutton, said if the lake keeps filling at its
current rate, Bee Run should remain open for perhaps another week.
"It looks like we'll be able to get in the bass tournament we have
scheduled for this weekend," she said. "But the lake averages two
tournaments a weekend through the summer. If people aren't able to
launch their boats, some of those tournaments are going to have to be
canceled."
Both of Sutton's major campgrounds are closed due to the high water.
"An army of volunteers just finished getting them cleaned up for the
summer season," Nuckles said. "Now they're going to have to do it all
over again."
Boating at R.D. Bailey is completely shut down. The lake's lone launch
ramp, at Guyandotte Point, is under several feet of water.
"We're still planning to open our campground May 23, if the water
doesn't get too high," said resource manager Toby Wood. "But if we get
a lot of water, it could end up affecting the opening."
The corps' Meadows said it isn't unusual for floodwaters to be stored
briefly in West Virginia reservoirs, but added that it's "very unusual"
to have to hold the waters for more than a few days.
"Frankly, we've never experienced anything like this before," Meadows
said. "We're basing our projections [for water levels and the amount of
time the reservoirs remain high] on normal weather and rainfall
conditions. If the weather stays rainy or suddenly goes dry, those
projections will change."
Reach John McCoy at johnmc...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1231.