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Riverbend residents blame Duke Power for recent flooding
By Lynn Hotaling
A group of local residents, upset by recent flooding that threatened their homes, is pinning the blame for the high water on Duke Power. The utility “mismanages” hydroelectric reservoirs upstream from Cullowhee and Sylva by not drawing lake levels down sufficiently to contain runoff from severe storms, residents of Riverbend Retirement Park say.
A local emergency management official disagrees, however, and he says the power company’s dams on the Tuckaseigee River’s East and West forks reduce the amount of flooding experienced here.
Standing near the bank of the Tuckaseigee River in a neighbor’s yard at Riverbend Retirement Park north of Cullowhee, Evey Mumm points to a concrete patio table overturned during September flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricanes Frances and Ivan. High water again threatened the community two weeks ago as Tropical Storm Arlene drenched Jackson County, sending the river from its banks in several places. – Herald photo by Nick Breedlove
“If we didn’t have the lakes, we would have more flooding,” said Mike Ensley, Jackson County’s emergency management coordinator.
Operations during the high flow periods were coordinated with Jackson County emergency management officials, said Duke District Manager Fred Alexander, a fact that was confirmed by Ensley.
“During any rain event, they try to coordinate with my office,” Ensley said, adding that he had seen no evidence of mismanagement on Duke’s part.
As for the Riverbend residents, Ensley said they live in an area that’s prone to flooding.
According to Riverbend spokesman Evey Mumm, the river in front of the mobile home community located off Old Cullowhee Road rose 12-13 feet after Tropical Storm Arlene drenched Jackson County June 12-13, coming within 2 vertical feet of the mark set last September after Hurricane Ivan roared through.
Mumm contends that power company officials have two or three weeks lead time before tropical storms or hurricanes reach the mountains and should lower lake levels accordingly.
“I’ve found such anger up and down the river,” said Riverbend resident Carol Schlaker. “(People) are so upset with Duke Power because dam openings and closings are not being managed properly.”
“We’re all very angry,” Mumm said. “If it were an act of God, we could accept it.”
Flood waters triggered by the remnants of Hurricane Ivan reached the foundations of the Riverbend homes last September. Resident Evey Mumm says the June 12-13 flooding came within 2 vertical feet of Ivan’s high-water mark.
Mumm, who said she lived on Lake Glenville from 1969 to 1984, said the river didn’t flood during those years because the power company – then Nantahala Power & Light Co., kept the lakes drawn down.
“When Nantahala was in charge, the lakes were drawn down all summer long,” she said. “This kind of flooding didn’t occur when Nantahala was running the show.”
Mumm said she wonders why Duke does not systematically draw down the lakes in a similar fashion, adding that Lake Glenville was the highest she’d ever seen it two weeks ago.
“Do we now have an organization run from so far away that the dangers here are simply not recognized?” she asked. “If (Duke) loses a dam, our lives here at Riverbend are over.”
According to Duke’s Alexander, flood gates open to prevent just such a scenario. The gates are float-controlled, and open automatically when water rises.
Duke’s procedure, however, calls for an employee to be dispatched to a dam when gates are expected to open and remain on site while water is high, Alexander said, adding that has been the policy for at least the 25 years he’s been with NP&L and Duke.
(Duke Power purchased NP&L from Alcoa in 1988; in 2001, NP&L became the Nantahala Area of Duke Power.)
In addition, Duke does keep an eye on approaching storms and reacts accordingly, he said.
“The major operational difference I see is that Duke hydro management is more aggressive in running hydro plants continuously days ahead of a storm or heavy rain that might come into this area,” Alexander said. “Duke has its own weather department, which helps in staying ahead of an operation without one. Also, since 1989, first under NP&L operations and later under Duke, we’ve been able to keep reservoir levels higher for public recreation in the summer than NP&L was in the 1980s. That’s due to lesser droughts and more operational flexibility as part of a much larger utility.”
According to Alexander, the major factor influencing operations is the amount of rainfall.
“The Tuckaseigee’s East and West forks have experienced more heavy rain closer in time than during the NP&L years going back to 1980,” he said. “For example, the Tuckaseigee flooded because of heavy rains in May 2003, twice in September 2004 and in June 2005. The river also flooded in January 1998.”
A document available from the National Weather Service describes the unusual weather pattern for the week of Jan. 5-9 1998, specifically mentioning this area.
“The heaviest rains and most severe flooding occurred in the mountains of North Carolina and northeast Tennessee, where up to 16 inches of rain fell in a two-day period in Jackson County, N.C.”
Stream flow information from the U.S. Geological Survey indicates the Tuckaseigee reached levels the same or higher than last September in both 1964 and 1976.
Though Mumm compared Duke’s dams and lakes to those of Tennessee Valley Authority and said flood control is part of the reason they were constructed, Alexander said that is not the case.
All six dams NP&L built here (Thorpe/Glenville, Tuckasegee, Cedar Cliff, Bear Creek, Wolf Creek and Tanassee Creek) were to generate power in order to produce aluminum for Alcoa during World War II and to increase generation for the post-war economy and to produce aluminum for the Korean War, Alexander said. “Limited” flood control was a by-product of Alcoa’s development of hydroelectric sites here, he said.
“‘Limited’ because flood waters can and do sometimes exceed the storage capacity of the reservoirs,” Alexander said. “Our reservoir operations do help reduce some of the flood waters entering the main stem of the Tuckaseigee. But they cannot eliminate flooding in the flood plain under all circumstances.”
Alexander agreed with Mumm that flood control is part of TVA’s mission in that TVA was created to improve navigability and provide flood control for the Tennessee River. In the case of TVA, hydroelectric power production is a by-product of the dams built to achieve those aims, he said.
Mumm is also correct in saying that Duke’s local hydro plants are operated remotely. However, according to Alexander, such operational procedures were begun by NP&L in the late 1940s to reduce personnel on site at the hydro plants during regular operation. During NP&L’s last few years, the Jackson County plants were controlled from Franklin. Now they are controlled from Charlotte, and the head of Duke’s hydro control operations is a former NP&L employee, he said.
“The location of the plant dispatchers does not affect our decision-making at any time,” Alexander said. “They have the same data.”
Alexander also supplied information to show that Duke began tracking Tropical Storm Arlene while it was still a tropical depression located 235 miles south-southwest of Cuba and began running its Tuckaseigee River hydro plants around the clock to lower the reservoirs. The June 9 report notes that the East Fork reservoirs (Wolf, Tanassee, Bear and Cedar Cliff) were already almost full due to heavy rains in preceding days.
Alexander said that despite these precautions, heavy rainfall on June 11-12 caused flood gates to open June 12 and that from noon on, run-off into the East Fork lakes exceeded their holding capacity. Duke’s records show that 12.47 inches of rain fell on Tanassee Creek, with the flood gate at Cedar Cliff opening 17.9 feet and passing 10,560 cubic feet per second at the peak, he said. Numbers on file from the September floods indicate some 13,000 cfs passed through Cedar Cliff then.
The flood gate also opened 3 feet at Lake Glenville, passing 1,500 cfs, less than half of the 3,300 cfs flowing into the lake, Alexander said.
According to Jackson County Building Inspector John Wittekind, to his knowledge the trailers in Riverbend meet all county construction guidelines with regard to location near a stream and elevation acceptable for a flood plain.
“But Mother Nature doesn’t always follow the rules,” Wittekind said. “If you build by a river or creek, you’re still playing an odds game, and there’s a risk.
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