The Tennessee River in the Chattanooga area will be closed to barge traffic for several days because of swift currents from recent rains, TVA spokesman Travis Brickey said Friday.
TVA is spilling water at all nine of its Tennessee River dams to help control water levels and generate electricity and will probably be doing so at least until early next week, Brickey said. However, Chattanooga is the only location where a halt has been called to barge traffic, he said.
"That's because just below Chattanooga is the Tennessee River Gorge, where the river gets squeezed and the flow is increased. When the flow rate gets that high, we do not feel it is safe for barge traffic," he said.
According to the National Weather Service, the Knoxville area has received 5.69 inches of rain since Jan. 1, compared to a normal value of 3.75 inches for that period.
"We have been spilling water for most of the week," Brickey said. "We had a lot of rain a week ago and pretty good rain the last few days as well, so we are moving a lot of water through the system."
East Tennessee typically receives its greatest rainfall during the winter months, so in the fall, TVA starts drawing down the levels at its reservoirs to make extra storage space to handle the rain. As that water moves through the system, it also allows TVA to generate extra electricity. Brickey said turbines at all nine dams are running at full capacity. Fort Loudoun Dam was moving water through at 396,000 gallons per second, he said.
"That's the lowest rate on the Tennessee River at the main stem," Brickey said. "It's doing almost 86,000 cubic feet per second at Watts Bar, which is over 641,000 gallons per second."
At Chickamauga Dam near Chattanooga, water is spilling at about 95,000 cubic feet per second, prompting the decision to close the river to barge traffic, Brickey said.
Around mid-March, TVA will begin filling the reservoirs again so that area lakes can be up to recreational levels by June 1.
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