Chilhowee 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 ...

located in Blount and

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

counties,

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 ...

, United States, between

river mile A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its river mouth, mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometre, kilometers is the river kilometer. They are an ...

33 and 34 on the

Little Tennessee River The Little Tennessee River (known locally as the Little T) is a tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It dra ...

. Construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1957 to provide power for the operation of the Alcoa Aluminum plant in nearby Alcoa, TN. The dam is now owned and operated by Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower. The dam's reservoir (Chilhowee Lake) covers approximately at normal full pool and has a

drainage area A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

of . The elevation of Chilhowee Reservoir is above mean sea level (USGS). Chilhowee's powerhouse is equipped with three

Kaplan turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to a ...

s that have a combined generating capacity of 48 megawatts.Alcoa
Chilhowee
, 2010. Retrieved: 5 January 2010. Like Calderwood and Cheoah, Chilhowee is controlled by

Fontana Dam Fontana Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Little Tennessee River in Swain County, North Carolina, Swain and Graham County, North Carolina, Graham counties, North Carolina, United States. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, whi ...

. Fontana Dam is the primary flow control facility for the lower Little Tennessee River. Tapoco built and operates the Chilhowee Development. Chilhowee Dam and its powerhouse are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as the Chilhowee Hydroelectric Development. When the lake is drawn down for maintenance, the remains of the original bridge of US 129 over Abrams Creek can be seen.

References

External links

*
Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower
(Brookfield)

(TVA) {{Little Tennessee River dams Alcoa Power Generating dams Buildings and structures in Blount County, Tennessee Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Tennessee Dams completed in 1957 Dams in Tennessee Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Energy infrastructure completed in 1957 Hydroelectric power plants in Tennessee Dams on the Little Tennessee River National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Tennessee