Hartwell's water level dwindles

Lake on S.C.-Georgia border may have 300 days left, experts say

By: JournalNow Staff | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 10, 2008

Experts say that if northwest South Carolina doesn't get some meaningful rainfall soon, water levels in Hartwell Lake could drop below the only functioning intake for the Anderson water district by as early as next fall.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says that the current lake level is 639.58 above mean sea level.

That is lower than the previous record low of 642.4 feet set during the drought of 1981.

Steve Wilson, the manager of the Anderson Regional Joint Water System, said that water cannot be taken from Hartwell Lake through the only remaining submerged intake pipe for the water system if water levels drop to 620 feet.

At the current rate of water usage, Wilson said that could happen late next summer or early fall.

"I would estimate that we have maybe 300 days of available water left in the lake. No one knows for sure," Wilson said. "Conservation methods have been successful and have increased the life of the existing water supply, but more needs to be done to ensure the continued supply of clean, usable water from the lake."

City officials in the towns of Central, Clemson and Pendleton said that their residents are conserving water and meeting the 20 percent reduction levels required by drought-management regulations.

The question now is whether that is enough conservation.

Now the Corps releases 3,600 cubic feet of water a second for electrical-generation needs and to keep federally mandated flows moving downstream, according to the Corps Web site. Virgil Hobbs, the Hartwell Project operations manager, said that the Corps is working on an environmental assessment that could cut releases to 3,100 cubic feet a second by Nov. 22. That could mean about 323 million more gallons a day would stay in the lake, Hobbs said.

If it does not rain and the lake continues to drop, there is still what is known as the inactive storage, Hobbs said. This is the deep-water part of the lake that could be tapped in a worst-case situation.

"If we reach that point next year, then the states of Georgia and South Carolina would have to agree to access the inactive storage, since this is a shared water resource," Hobbs said. "Water would become more expensive and we could lose the lake, but water needs could continue to be met for some time with pumps and pipes."

Hobbs said use of deep-water resources would be uncharted territory. "We can only hope that God will be looking out for us and provide some much-needed rain," he said.