Blue Ridge Dam is a

hydroelectric dam Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

on the Toccoa River in Fannin County, in the U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. It is the uppermost of four dams on the Toccoa/Ocoee River owned and operated by the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

. The dam impounds the Blue Ridge Lake on the southwestern fringe of the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the United States, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern ...

.Tennessee Valley Authority, ''Design of TVA Projects Volume 3: Mechanical Design of Hydro Plants'', Technical Report No. 24 (Washington, D.C.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1952), pp. 302-304.

Location

Blue Ridge Dam is located upstream from the mouth of the Toccoa/Ocoee River, near the point where the states of Georgia,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, and

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

meet. The Toccoa River winds its way northwestward from the dam, crossing into Tennessee (where it becomes the Ocoee River) roughly downstream en route to the Ocoee dams on the lower part of the river. Blue Ridge Dam is upstream from

Ocoee Dam No. 3 Ocoee Dam No. 3 is a hydroelectric dam on the Ocoee River in Polk County, Tennessee, Polk County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of four dams on the Toccoa/Ocoee River owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built t ...

. The

Chattahoochee National Forest The Chattahoochee River () is a river in the Southeastern United States. It forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida and Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a rela ...

surrounds Blue Ridge Dam and its reservoir, and the city of

Blue Ridge, Georgia Blue Ridge is a city in Fannin County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 1,253. The city is the county seat of Fannin County and the largest city in the county. History Prior t ...

is located a few miles west of the dam.

U.S. Route 76 U.S. Route 76 (US 76) is an east–west U.S. highway in the Southeastern United States that travels for . Its western terminus is at U.S. Route 41 in Tennessee, US 41 and the eastern terminus of U.S. Route 72 in Tennessee, US 72 (Broad Street) in ...

crosses a bridge just downstream from Blue Ridge Dam.

Capacity

Blue Ridge Dam is a hydraulic earth-fill type dam high and long, and has a generating capacity of 22

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s.Tennessee Valley Authority
Blue Ridge Reservoir
. Retrieved: 23 January 2009. The dam's gate-controlled saddle spillway— which is separated from the main dam by a small hill— can discharge up to of water per second. The dam's powerhouse utilizes a concrete

intake tower An intake tower or outlet tower is a vertical tubular structure with one or more openings used for capturing water from reservoirs and conveying it further to a hydroelectric or water-treatment plant. Unlike spillways, intake towers are intended ...

, and a -diameter steel

penstock A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is of Scots origin, and was inherited from the earlier technology of mill pond ...

long that conveys water from the tower to the primary turbine. A

surge tank Surge means a sudden transient rush or flood, and may refer to: Science * Storm surge, the onshore flow of water associated with a low-pressure weather system * Surge (glacier), a short-lived event where a glacier can move up to velocities 100 t ...

relieves pressure brought about by rapid gate closures.Tennessee Valley Authority
Mountain Reservoirs Land Management Plan — Chapter 3
. p. 154. Retrieved: 23 January 2009. PDF.Tennessee Valley Authority
Final Environmental Assessment Blue Ridge Dam Rehabilitation Project
, December 2009 Blue Ridge Lake has approximately of shoreline and a flood storage capacity of . The reservoir's levels fluctuate by about in a typical year. Seasonal releases from the dam create Class I and Class II rapids on the Toccoa River for several miles downstream.

History

Blue Ridge Dam was built by the Toccoa Electric Power Company, a subsidiary of the

Tennessee Electric Power Company The Chattanooga and Tennessee Electric Power Company was formed in 1905 by Josephus C. Guild, Charles E. James and Anthony N. Brady to produce hydroelectric power and improve navigation on the Tennessee River. Josephus Guild, a young engineer fr ...

(TEPCO), which operated several hydroelectric plants in nearby Tennessee, including Ocoee Dam No. 1 and Ocoee Dam No. 2. Construction began in 1925, and the dam went into operation July 1, 1931. At the time of its completion, the dam had a generating capacity of 20 megawatts and was the most modern power dam in the TEPCO system, requiring a staff of just six employees. Subsequent upgrades have increased the dams generating capacity to 22 megawatts. With the passage of the TVA Act in 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority was given oversight of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

watershed (which included the Toccoa River). TEPCO challenged the

constitutionality In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

of the TVA Act in federal court, but the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

upheld the law in 1939, and TEPCO was forced to sell its assets to TVA for $78 million in August of that year. This sum included $5 million for Blue Ridge Dam. Soon after the dam began operations in 1931, its penstock partially collapsed. To prevent this from happening again, TVA has significantly lowered the water level in the reservoir when it conducts periodic dam inspections (approximately once every five years), which require dewatering of the penstock. A project was initiated in 2010 to repair the penstock, stabilize the intake tower base, and repair and stabilize the upstream and downstream faces of the dam, thus eliminating the future need for severe reservoir drawdowns. In early 2025, a TVA safety report stated that Blue Ridge Dam was built in a way that makes it "vulnerable to a strong earthquake." The report said such an event could cause "significant cracks" leading to an uncontrolled release of water and "significant loss of human life." TVA said it would work to protect the public from such an event.

References

External links

Blue Ridge Reservoir
— official TVA site {{Tennessee Valley Authority Facilities Dams on the Hiwassee River Tennessee Valley Authority dams Dams in Georgia (U.S. state) Buildings and structures in Fannin County, Georgia Dams completed in 1931 1931 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)