Serious Question

[Phil Lilley]

On my Corps App it says Bull Shoals Dam is releasing water through its spill gates.

16 gates are open 2 feet each and it equals 4,000 cfs

How can that be???  When Table Rock was releasing water over their gates, it stated 5 gates were open 1 foot each and releasing 5,100 cfs.

(It still says that by the way)

Are the gates the same width or is BS dam's gates micro gates compared to TR's gates?

I just would like to know how much water is running through BS Dam. 

On Table Rock, I know what the tailwater level is and thus can tell approximately what the release is but I'm not as familiar with BS and the White's levels.

[bfishn]

Gates are 40' wide for both dams. BS gates are 29' high while TR's are 28' which might affect wide open capacity, but shouldn't matter to partial openings. The lake head will matter though, more feet of water above the opening will result in more flow. Don't know if that's the case now.

[netboy]

I think there is probably more than 4k coming thru the spill gates. I pay more attention to the river level at the dam than the spillway estimates. That said the river level is roughly 1 foot lower this morning than yesterday morning. That is about 8.5 feet higher than minimum flow which is 450.4.

[WoundedOne]

For some reason the changed the amount of cfs it was @ 10,150 with the same amount you listed 16 gates are open 2 feet each and it equals 4,000 cfs on Friday night. I thought that was weird also

[snagged in outlet 3]

50 minutes ago, WoundedOne said:

For some reason the changed the amount of cfs it was @ 10,150 with the same amount you listed 16 gates are open 2 feet each and it equals 4,000 cfs on Friday night. I thought that was weird also

If the lake level went down wouldn’t there be less water coming over?  Just a thought. 

[netboy]

47 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

If the lake level went down wouldn’t there be less water coming over?  Just a thought. 

It is my understanding that the opening for spillway releases is well below the surface of the lake so the water doesn't go over the top of the spillway.

Here is a diagram of a typical spillway.

 

 

[MOPanfisher]

Things sometimes get listed wrong on websites also, I may have entered a few incorrectly in my time. Head pressure will certainly make a difference also.

[joeD]

https://www.swpa.gov/gen/tue.htm