Allatoona power plant to restart soon
The economics of local river recreation could be impacted by the restart of full power generation.
Resuming full power generation could impact local river recreation.
River recreational opportunities will experience the rise and fall of the Etowah River once again this summer. For the first time in five years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may be in full production of power from the Allatoona Dam, and that could have an impact on recreational use of the Etowah River and some of the small businesses that have grown exponentially in recent years.
Rick Dempsey, a retired Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement ranger who opened River Ratz, a kayak and inner tube rental company, said that safety on the river remains his top priority and that a return to full generation capacity at Allatoona could be both good and bad for business.
James Lossick, owner of the Cedar Creek RV and Outdoor Center in Cave Spring, said a lot of the group rental of kayaks that his business does is on the Etowah as well.
A fire at the powerhouse in the Allatoona Dam in May of 2014 all but put the dam out of the electricity production business. In March, one of the turbines came back online and Chris Purvis, the lead recreation ranger for the Corps at Allatoona, said he expects the final turbine to come back online within the next week or so.
Purvis said that the generation of power from Allatoona is largely to supply peaking power to the electricity grid when it’s hot in the summer or extremely cold in the winter.
The impact of the resumption of almost daily full-scale generation of power at Allatoona is hard to gauge because use of the river has increased dramatically since the fire at the powerhouse. For instance, the River Dog Paddle Co., now River Dog Outpost in the Cotton Block of downtown Rome, didn’t even open until the fall of 2014, several months after the fire in the dam. Mike and Connie Sams have put a lot of people on the rivers on paddleboards in the past
four years. Lossick went back a little further and said business at his shop is up 1,000 percent as compared to a decade ago. “When it’s hot, it’s cool,” Lossick said. “It’s a great family activity. It’s something you can do with a group or independently.”
Dempsey, who spent a lot of time patrolling the waterways during his 30plus year DNR career, said he knew there was an opportunity to generate a little extra revenue with the float rental business, and that a resumption
of full generating activity at Allatoona would change everything on the Etowah. The water level in the Etowah should be up a little more consistently than it has been the last four summers.
“If the river gets too high it’s dangerous,” Dempsey said. “I’m not going to put anybody on the river when it gets to that point.”
Dempsey said last year was unusually wet early in the summer, and his business was impacted by spillway releases from the dam, both Memorial Day and Independence Day weekends, to control the level in the lake at Cartersville. Dempsey said he believes flow from the floodgates at the dam generally produces more of a rush of water than normal power generation. When the turbines are running, the releases from the dam are a little more even and not quite as hazardous.
Wayne Vandenburg, Corps of Engineers supervisory power project specialist at the Allatoona powerhouse, took issue with that analysis.
“Regardless of how we pass the water, it’s always about the same, regardless of if its generation or spillways or sluice. We’re given a flow rate and obviously we prefer to pass it all through the power plant,” Vandenburg said. The Southeastern Power Administration coordinates the best time for the plant to run for its customers. Vandenburg said it is typical for the dam to generate Monday through Friday during the summer
He also pointed out that even when the big turbines were out of service, the dam had a smaller in-house generator that did flow some water on a more even basis for the last several years. During the hot summer months most of the past four seasons, Dempsey said if a person was toppled out of a kayak or tube between Dixon Landing and Heritage Park, all they had to do was stand up. The water was generally that shallow, although there are some holes where the water could be significantly deeper. How much regular generation from Allatoona will change that remains to be seen.
Dempsey said a slightly higher river level with a steady flow would not be bad for his business. For the most part, Dempsey’s River Ratz service carries tubes, kayaks or canoes to the Dixon Landing on the Etowah near the Grizzard Park soccer complex. He picks up floaters at Heritage Park in downtown Rome and carries them back to their cars at Dixon Landing. While Lossick does a lot of his Cedar Creek RV and Outdoor Center business on the Etowah, his home water is Big Cedar Creek.
Floaters and kayakers can get the latest generation schedule at Allatoona by calling 706334-7213.