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Looks like I underestimated the size of the catchement area.  It
seems closer to 5000 than 1000 acres guessing roughly from topo maps.

On Nov 15, 2010, at 7:06 AM, Fred Hebard wrote:

> I'll ask a friend who works at TVA and try to get back to you all.
> I doubt the official TVA story, since the catchement area behind
> the dam is only 1000 acres or so.  My bet is that the TVA story
> glosses over a plain, ordinary screw up.
>
>
> On Nov 15, 2010, at 12:39 AM, Frank Reed wrote:
>
>> Fred Hebard, you wrote:
>> "I live near Bristol, VA/TN. A dam was built on the Virginia side
>> (just northwest of Exit 7 on I-81) but the lake never filled; I'm
>> not sure why, have heard that the ground leaked (limestone soils/
>> karst topography). Regardless, the Google map depicts the lake
>> that's never been there!"
>>
>> Fred, I LOVE that one. The trails run right through the middle of
>> the phantom reservoir. And apparently you can play soccer
>> underwater. Here's the coordinates of the reservoir if anyone
>> wants to visit: 36.6467,-82.1091.
>>
>> The TVA, which built the dam, states on their web site that the
>> Beaver Creek Dam is "a flood detention dam with no permanent
>> reservoir pool." It seems that it was designed only for emergency
>> flood control. But somehow, decades ago, the USGS mapped it as a
>> filled reservoir (Google gets their basic data in the US from the
>> USGS). I wonder if the TVA ever let it fill up just to test its
>> integrity... Probably more likely that boundary just represents
>> the potential size if a flood ever requires closing the dam. By
>> the way, I could find no references to geological or soil issues.
>> The TVA counts it as an active flood-control structure, and it
>> will probably work just fine if Bristol ever needs it.
>>
>> -FER
>>
>>
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