Anybody that stopped by the Kentucky Dam Visitor Center Saturday probably noticed two things.
1) The center has opened for the season, and will remain open until the late fall.
And 2) Kentucky Dam, along with nearby Barkley Dam, has spilled more than 242 billion gallons of water in the last 24 hours, with such totals expected to rise quickly through the weekend.
That’s more than 170,000 cubic feet per second, which does fall short of the record 303,000 cubic feet per second in 2011.
In 2024, more than 124,000 people stopped by a visitor center somewhere in the TVA profile, and it’s TVA’s retirees that continually serve as “Bicentennial Volunteers, Incorporated” — as they welcome and share TVA history with visitors.
Visitor centers provide an opportunity to learn about TVA’s impact on the Tennessee Valley region. They are free to visit, typically offer family-friendly activities — and allow people to learn about an electric system that provides affordable, reliable, resilient and clean energy to 10 million people daily.
That energy, at least in west Kentucky, is mostly provided by hydroelectricity.
At 2 PM Thursday, April 3, Kentucky Dam was spilling just above 142,000 gallons an hour, with a reservoir elevation at 354.77 feet, and a tailwater elevation at 316.80 feet.
At 1 PM Saturday, April 5, Kentucky Dam was spilling just above 229,600 gallons an hour, with a reservoir elevation at 356.38 feet, and a tailwater elevation at 328.35 feet.
Picture this: the average Olympic-size swimming pool measures 50 meters long, 25 meters wide, a minimum two meters deep, and typically holds more than 660,000 gallons of water.
This means that in 24 hours, Kentucky and Barkley dams spilled enough water to fill more than 367,500 such pools.
Kentucky Dam will be spilling until further notice.
