Another Perspective On Our Water, Tr's Turnover

[Phil Lilley]

Talking to Clint at the hatchery yesterday, water came up in the conversation.

The water coming from Table Rock has risen to 59 degrees since the rains in September and October. Remember when they opened the gates the first time - 65 degree over the top and 50 from the bottom.

They've been generating 24/7 ever since. Clint used the word "pulling" which struck a note. When they're pulling water at the dam, I'm sure there's a current even on the big, main lake on Table Rock. When all that water was being pulled to the dam, from the top and from 130 feet deep, it created a current that's really never slowed down.

Here's the theory... water is being "pulled" from the upper parts of Table Rock to the turbines, it's not being pulled from the bottom where colder, dense water is, thus the 2 ppm DO and 59 degree temps.

Clint thinks that the next few days of no generation may stop this current and when they start generating again, we may see our water temp drop again.

I speculated that Table Rock may have been starting to turn over, evident by the high temp and higher than normal DO levels. But Clint's idea makes more since. We have not had the cold temps we need to flip Table Rock.

It makes sense... we'll see what happens.