Center Hill Lake is currently nine feet below its normal elevation for this time of year, experiencing stream flow issues due to a lack of rainfall.
Nashville District Water Management Section Chief David Bogema and his team make daily release decisions for the regional dam system. He said the region needs the winter and spring precipitation to store water for use during drier months.
“Within the lake itself, you’ll see typically lower elevations lake levels than you normally would this time of year” Bogema said. “As I mentioned about nine feet lower, so just be careful as you’re boating. Be careful areas where you typically would see elevations later in the fall.”
Bogema said the low inflows are causing pool levels to drop because the district must still make minimum releases for hydropower. Bogema said the system is currently generating less hydropower than is typical for this time of year.
“We’re seeing quite a bit less rainfall than we typically would see for this time of year,” Bogema said. “And so normally in the spring, we’re looking to fill our reservoirs, so using capturing that spring and winter rainfall, that helps to prevent flooding downstream but we save that water for use later in the season and to fill the reservoirs for recreation and just to have that water that we can then release throughout the year.”
Bogema said the Nashville District operates nine reservoirs as a collective system to meet regional energy demands on an hourly and weekly basis.
“We depend on that water that we store this time of year to make releases throughout the summer and fall when we typically have lower runoff into our reservoirs,” Bogema said. “So by not having the rainfall and the runoff into them now during this typically wetter part of the year, it’s going to mean that as we go into the summer and fall we’ll have less water.”
Bogema said boaters should exercise caution and wear life jackets because lower lake levels may expose hazards usually seen only in the fall. Bogema said while navigation and fisheries could see impacts later in the season, water supply for local communities remains the highest priority.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll get a little bit more rain and start to fill our reservoirs,” Bogema said. “But we’ll continue to evaluate and adjust as we go through the season.”