4-27-11 —     Lake Cumberland is expected to rise rapidly because water releases  

through Wolf Creek Dam have been drastically reduced to ease flows  

down-stream toward seriously flooded Western Kentucky.

    Bob Sneed, chief of the Water Management Section for the United  

States Army Corps of Engineers' Nashville District, said last week  

that water releases through the dam have been reduced to 540 cubic  

feet per second (cfs) from 28,000 cfs released since March 10.

    Water releases also have been reduced at Dale Hollow Lake and at  

Center Hill Dam, an impound-ment on Cumberland River near Nashville  

that is plagued with seepage problems comparable to Wolf Creek.

    The Cumberland River winds south and west from Wolf Creek Dam  

through Nashville and to Barkley Lake near Paducah.

    The water eventually flows into the Ohio River at Smithland, a  

community currently bracing for record flooding.

    Sneed said all six generators at Wolf Creek Dam have been shut down  

because of continuing heavy rains.

    The 540 cfs being released are through two orifice gates, and water  

diverted to the National Fish Hatchery.

    Orifice gates are plates with holes beneath sluice gates that allow  

a small amount of water to go through.

    "The lake is going to go up ... I wouldn't be surprised to see it  

above 720 (feet above sea level)," said Sneed. The tree line is 723  

feet.

    At noon Wednesday, the lake was 710.05 and rising slowly. Sneed said  

it is very difficult to project exactly how high the lake will rise;  

it depends on the amount of rainfall.

    Bill Peoples, chief of public affairs at the Corps' Nashville  

District, said engineers are not concerned about stability of Wolf  

Creek Dam when the lake is high on a temporary basis. He said the  

water will be released as soon as possible.

    Wolf Creek Dam early in 2005 was declared in high risk of failure. A  

$584 million rehabilitation of the dam got under way in January 2007  

and the lake has been kept about 40 feet below normal since then,  

except during periods of excessive rainfall.

    Contractors have been unable to drill in a 200-foot-wide section of  

the dam, called Critical Area 1, near the juncture of the earthen and  

concrete sections.

    Special drilling equipment is being designed to install a permanent  

barrier wall in this section without disturbing the cavern-laced  

materials in the bowels of the dam.

    Delays in finding a way to make Critical Area 1 safe have pushed  

back the projected completion of the dam rehabilitation project until  

December 2013.

    Rehabilitation was 51 percent complete April 1.