Georgia’s Newest Lake is About Ready for Water

As Georgia’s largest lakes dry up, the state’s newest body of water is nearly ready to fill. But a full lake is at least two years away.

Construction of Hickory Log Creek Dam in Canton wraps up in about 10 days, allowing managers to close the gates to capture the flow. Should there be any to catch.

The ongoing drought — the harshest on record — has reduced Hickory Log Creek to a trickle. Last week, the flow of the Etowah River tributary was about 2 cubic feet, about 15 gallons, a second. Normal flow is 10 cubic feet a second.

That’s one reason it will take as long to fill the reservoir as it did to build the 180-foot high dam.

After about a year of grading, clearing and other work , construction started on the concrete dam in December, said Chuck Kahler, construction manager for Schnabel Engineering.

Builders didn’t use the fluid concrete used to build sidewalks, Kahler said. The standard concrete used in dam construction is more like damp sand.

Using this cement allowed workers to add as much as three feet a day to the pale gray monolith, Kahler said.

The wall to hold back the water was finished in June.

The dam, however, is only part of the $100 million water project by the city of Canton and the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority. Still under construction is a pumping station on the banks of the Etowah River — behind the Waffle House at Riverstone Parkway and I-575.

The pumping station and 1.6-mile pipeline to the reservoir is expected to be finished by the end of next year, said Glenn Page, general manager of the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority.

When the Etowah River is flowing above 300 cubic feet a second — it’s now at less than 250 cubic feet a second — water managers will be able to pump up to 44 million gallons a day behind the dam.

The flow of Hickory Log Creek will also contribute to the pool. Managers must send at least 3.5 cubic feet per second downstream to maintain water quality and wildlife, but can store any additional water. Holding back an average of 7 cubic feet per second will add about 4.5 million gallons a day to the liquid stores.

The reservoir will hold about 5 billion gallons.

The idea, Page said, is to fill the lake when the Etowah is flowing freely and to release the water during dry times. The water will be piped from the reservoir back to the river, where it will flow to the water system intakes downriver and in Lake Allatoona.

The Canton water system, which is paying 25 percent of the project costs, has dibs on up to 11 million gallons a day.

"It will provide the city’s drinking water for the next 50 years," said acting Canton City Manager Robert Logan.

The city system now uses up to 5.5 million gallons a day.

Dam safety regulations determine the pace of filling the reservoir, Page said.

The first 40 feet of dam height can be filled as quickly as possible.

After that, the water level can rise two feet a week, then, closer to the top, one foot a week.

Filling the lake to full pool at 1,060 feet above sea level should take about a year, Page said.

One possible hitch: a lawsuit filed in October by the state of Alabama. State officials there filed a complaint in federal court asking a judge to void permits issued to build the dam.

DAM BY THE NUMBERS

– 220,000: cubic yards of concrete used in dam construction.

– 1,060: feet above sea level of full pool.

– 411: acres of lake created by dam.

– 180: height of dam in feet.

– 150: width of base of dam in feet.

– 100: workers at peak of construction activity.