GUNTERSVILLE LOCK AND DAM – National Dam Safety Day is this Saturday, May 31. To the uninitiated, this may not seem like such a big deal. But to those professionals who operate and maintain the 30 major dams and 19 smaller structures, Dam Safety Day is special. The Tennessee Valley Authority was established in the 1930’s to control flooding on the river and provide hydro-electric power. But, more than that, the establishment of the TVA by President Roosevelt transformed parts of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky from a back-woods, poor, rural wasteland into an American economic and farming powerhouse. The mission continues today. Thursday, the Quad-Cities Daily was invited to tour Guntersville Dam and see a demonstration of a modern unmanned submersible vehicle. The submarine is used to take a close look at underwater parts of the structure. It can find areas on the structures that may need mechanical attention. Back in the day, whenever the dams needed mechanical integrity surveys, divers would have to head down underwater.
Bernie Auld lowers the sub into the water.
To say the least, it was not the safest profession. And it was expensive, but it had to be done. These mini sub drones have been used for about 10 years. The one that was demonstrated to the media is pretty much state-of-the-art with color imagery and a number of tools that can be attached to aid in the mechanical inspections. Guntersville Hydro Plant Manager, Chip Troy said, “Operating a hydroelectric dam isn’t easy. It requires constant attention to detail, and safety of the public and our personnel is our number one priority.” The demonstration was conducted by TVA Program Manager, River Operations, Bernie Auld and TVA Civil Engineer, Ben Phillips. The video is an example of what the underwater camera sees. Ben Phillips, the sub operator keeps the camera just a few inches from the underwater areas of interest. [youtube http://youtu.be/nM0Nvn0X21Y]
Here are some facts about Guntersville Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority:
• Construction of Guntersville Dam began in 1935 and was completed in 1939.
• The dam is 94 feet high and stretches 3,979 feet across the Tennessee River.
• Guntersville Dam is a hydroelectric facility and has four generating units. • The dam has a net dependable capacity of 124 megawatts. Net dependable capacity is the amount of power a darn can produce on an average day, minus the electricity used by the dam itself.
• Guntersville Reservoir has almost 890 miles of shoreline and 67,900 acres of water surface.
• The reservoir has a flood-storage capacity of 162,100 acre-feet.
• In order to maintain the depth required for navigation, the water level in the reservoir is maintained at a minimum winter elevation of 593 feet. The typical summer operating range is between 594 and 595 feet.
• The larger of Guntersville’s two locks was built in 1965 to handle the growing river traffic.
• A stairway of dams and locks help manage water and the movement of goods and services up and down the 652-mile-long river highway we know as the Tennessee River. The locks make navigation possible from Knoxville, TN to Paducah, KY.
• TV A uses operating guides for each reservoir to make decisions about moving water through its dams.
• These guides are based on many decades of operating experience.
• They are built around the idea of allowing seasonal variations in the use of flood storage space.
• Operating guides take into consideration all the features that influence a reservoir’s ability to store and release water-the size and shape of the surrounding watershed, the reservoir’s surface area, and the average rainfall and runoff-as well as historical demands for water use and flood storage space at different times of the year.
The photos are a gallery of the tour: Photos by Sheri Wiggins and Steve Wiggins
