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Chatuge Dam
| Chatuge Dam | |
|---|---|
 Chatuge Dam contains Chatuge Reservoir | |
| Official name | Chatuge Dam |
| Location | Clay County, North Carolina, United States |
| Coordinates | 35°1′3″N 83°47′28″W / 35.01750°N 83.79111°W |
| Construction began | July 17, 1941 |
| Opening date | February 12, 1942 |
| Operator(s) | Tennessee Valley Authority |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Hiwassee River |
| Height | 144 ft (44 m) |
| Length | 2,850 ft (870 m) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Chatuge Lake |
Chatuge Dam is a flood control and hydroelectric dam on the Hiwassee River in Clay County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The dam is the uppermost of three dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s for flood storage and to provide flow regulation at Hiwassee Dam further downstream.[1] The dam impounds the 7,000-acre (2,800 ha) Chatuge Lake, which straddles the North Carolina-Georgia state line.[2] While originally built solely for flood storage, a generator installed at Chatuge in the 1950s gives the dam a small hydroelectric output.[3] At the time it was built, Chatuge Dam was the highest earthen dam in the world until the Aswan Dam was built in Egypt in 1964.[4] The dam and associated infrastructure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.[5]
Chatuge Dam is named for an 18th-century Cherokee village once situated near the dam site.[1] The dam is the easternmost TVA energy facility in North Carolina.[6] The main dam has three saddle dams – one to the west (19 feet high and 300 feet long) and two to the east (27 feet high and 500 feet long; and 37 feet high and 320 feet long). Chatuge Dam and its three saddle dams are classified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as high-hazard dams, meaning a dam failure may pose a deadly threat to nearby residents. All four dams' conditions are not made available to the public due to security concerns.[7][8]
- ^ a b Tennessee Valley Authority, The Hiwassee Valley Projects Volume 2: The Apalachia, Ocoee No. 3, Nottely, and Chatuge Projects, Technical Report No. 5 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1948), pp. 1-8, 17-19, 50-55, 209, 214, 222, 232, 496-497.
- ^ Tennessee Valley Authority, The Nickajack Project: A Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, Initial Operations, and Costs, Technical Report No. 16 (Knoxville, Tenn.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1972), pp. 10-11.
- ^ Tennessee Valley Authority, Chatuge Reservoir. Retrieved: 28 January 2009.
- ^ Moore, Carl S. (January 1, 2007). "Impact of National Forest & TVA Chatuge Dam". Clay County, NC Then and Now: A Written and Pictorial History. Genealogy Publishing Service. ISBN 9781881851240.
- ^ "National Register Database and Research - National Register of Historic Places (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
- ^ Office, U. S. Government Accountability. "Tennessee Valley Authority: Additional Steps Are Needed to Better Manage Climate-Related Risks | U.S. GAO". www.gao.gov. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
- ^ "Chatuge Dam". National Inventory of Dams. June 15, 2021. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
- ^ LIEB, David A. (May 5, 2022). "Condition of some US dams kept secret in national database". Associated Press. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
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