Hartwell Dam

Hartwell Dam
Hartwell Dam water-control and power-generation structure
Location	Anderson County, South Carolina / Hart County, Georgia, USA
Construction began	1955
Opening date	1962
Construction cost	USD $89,240,000
Operator(s)	U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Dam and spillways
Impounds	Savannah River
Height	204 feet (62 m)
Length	3 miles (4,828 m)
Reservoir
Surface area	55,900 acres (22,600 ha)
Power station
Turbines	5
Installed capacity	421 MW
Annual generation	468,000,000 KWh annually

Hartwell Dam is a concrete and embankment dam located on the Savannah River at the border of South Carolina and Georgia, creating Lake Hartwell. The dam was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1955 and 1962 for the purposes of flood control, hydropower and navigation. The concrete and earthen structure spans 15,840 feet (4,828 m). The concrete section is 1,900 feet (579 m) long and rises 204 feet (62 m) above the riverbed at its apex. The Hartwell Dam currently produces 468 million KWh of electricity annually, has prevented over $40 million in flood damage since completion and also provides recreation, water quality, water supply, along with fish and wildlife management.

In 1890, Lieutenant Oberlin M. Carter of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Savannah Office issued a survey report that recommended the construction of dams on the Savannah River in order to prevent flooding in Augusta, Georgia. His report was overlooked until the 1927 Rivers and Harbors Act allowed the USACE to investigate development of the Savannah River for the purpose of hydroelectricity, navigation, flood control and irrigation. In 1933, the USACE completed the report for the entire Savannah River Basin that recommended against government flood control development of the basin but did propose two hydropower dams in the upper Savannah Basin, the Hartwell and Clark Hill dams.

The Flood Control Act of 1950 authorized the Hartwell Dam and Reservoir as a development project of the Savannah River Basin. Construction on the dam began in 1955 and the plan called for a 3-mile long structure containing four hydroelectric generators with a combined 264 MW capacity. Predicting future demand requirements, the ability to install a fifth generator in the future was provided. 1,900 ft of the dam's length consists of a concrete gravity dam, the rest compacted earth. A year before completion, in February 1961, the dam began to inundate a portion of the Savannah River to create the reservoir. In March 1962, the reservoir was complete behind the dam and the four original hydro-power generators went online in April. The original projected cost of the dam was $68.4 million USD but when completed was just over $89.2 million USD. In 1983, the fifth generator was installed on the dam, raising the generation capacity to 344 MW.