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Corps dams worked as designed
Release 10-27 NASHVILLE, TENN. — Area dams have performed as designed in the recent unprecedented flood event, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stressed today. “It’s important to remember that the primary purpose of our dams is to minimize flood damages, and these projects did that,” emphasized Lt. Col. Anthony Mitchell, Commander of the Corps’ Nashville District. “Without reservoirs like J. Percy Priest Lake and Old Hickory Lake, the flooding we saw in the Middle Tennessee area could have been much worse.” The record rainfall from the past weekend was what water managers refer to as a 1,000 year event. A 1,000 year rain event has a 0.1% chance, or a 1 in 1,000 chance, of happening every year. This unprecedented event stretched the capabilities of the ten Corps dams on the Cumberland and its tributaries, but the projects have performed as designed. “The Corps of Engineers is doing everything in our power to minimize flood damages, but the extreme and flash nature of this event makes some damages unavoidable,” said Lt. Col. Mitchell. “I hope the public understands that achieving flood damage reduction by storing water in our lakes and controlling the flows from our dams is a challenging balancing act,” said Bob Sneed, Chief of Water Management for the Nashville District. “We attempt to minimize the risk to upstream communities by not allowing the lake pools to rise too high, while also minimizing flooding for downstream communities by not releasing too much water too quickly,” explained Sneed. “Finally, we have to release quickly enough to ensure we have enough storage capacity to hold water back in a future rain event.” Record high lake levels threatened to overtop dams like Old Hickory in Hendersonville, Tenn. and J. Percy Priest in Nashville, which would render them useless in further controlling downstream flood damages and would have caused more flooding in the Nashville area. The current flooding situation is further complicated by the low dam safety rating of several dams in the Cumberland system, most notably Wolf Creek and Center Hill dams. The Corps is closely monitoring these dams and has not seen any signs of concern. “I am confident that the decisions made by our water management team were the right decisions,” stated Lt. Col. Mitchell. “They have achieved the correct balance by applying proven models and calculations, and have worked closely with other agencies to ensure that their actions minimized damages to homes, businesses, and utilities wherever possible.” -30-
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