Mount Storm Lake – also known as New Stony River Reservoir – is a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

created in 1965 on the Stony River in

Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States * Grant County, Arkansas * Grant County, Indiana * Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky Grant County is a county located in the northern pa ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

.West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, South Charleston, WV (2003)
"Mount Storm Lake."
/ref> It serves as a

cooling pond A cooling pond is a man-made body of water primarily formed for the purpose of cooling heated water or to store and supply cooling water to a nearby power plant or industrial facility such as a petroleum refinery, pulp and paper mill, chemica ...

for the

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

1.6

gigawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of 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 quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor ...

Mount Storm Power Station, which provides

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

to more than two million customers in Northern Virginia. The reservoir stands at an altitude of .

Recreation

Mount Storm Lake is a popular local and tourist destination. When Mount Storm Power Station uses the reservoir for cooling, it keeps Mount Storm Lake at a warm temperature that makes it perfect for swimming, boating, and water activities even in cooler weather. The reservoir's water is also extremely clear, with the light available on an average overcast day allowing swimmers to clearly see its bottom at depths of at least five to six feet. Due to its warm temperature, the lake is a popular diving destination and training ground for

scuba diver Scuba, originally SCUBA, often expanded to scuba set, is any self contained underwater breathing apparatus, a source of breathing gas used for underwater diving which is carried by the diver. Scuba may also refer to: * Scuba diving Scuba ...

s. The reservoir, which is in the upper 80s to 90s in the summer and rarely drops below fifty in the winter is outfitted with dive platforms at 30, 50, 75, and 120 feet and is regularly used by divers as a place to test equipment, maintain skill, enjoy a dive, and further training. The lake's location on the

Allegheny Front The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern West Virginia, and western Virginia. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the Ridge-an ...

, one of the windiest spots east of the

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, makes it an excellent destination for small boat

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...

. There is a public boat ramp at the north end of the lake just off West Virginia Route 93. More than 40

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s are visible from the lake.

References

Chesapeake Bay watershed Bodies of water of Grant County, West Virginia Reservoirs in West Virginia Potomac River watershed Dominion Energy Cooling ponds {{GrantCountyWV-geo-stub