Blue Ridge Dam is a

hydroelectric dam Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

on the

Toccoa River The Toccoa River and Ocoee River are the names in use for a single river that flows northwestward through the southern Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. It is a tributary of the Hiwassee River, which it joins in Polk Coun ...

in Fannin County, in the U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. 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 Carolina ...

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

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

.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 state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

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. The

Chattahoochee National Forest The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the con ...

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 census, the city had a population of 1,253. The city is the county seat of Fannin County. History Prior to European colonization, the area that is now Blue Ridge was in ...

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 that travels for approximately from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Route description , - , TN , 8.9 , 14.3 , - , GA , 150.7 , 242.5 , - , SC , 297.9 , 479.4 ...

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, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

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 inherited from the earlier technology of mill ponds and watermills. H ...

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

surge tank A Surge tank is a water storage device used as a pressure neutralizer in hydropower water conveyance systems in order to dampen excess pressure variance. A surge tank (or surge drum or surge pool) is a standpipe or storage reservoir at the downst ...

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 improving the navigation of the Tennessee River. Josephus Guild, a young engin ...

(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 the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...

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

constitutionality 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 applicable constitution. When l ...

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 involve a point o ...

upheld the law in 1939, and TEPCO was forced to sell its assets to TVA for $78 million in August of that year.Timothy Ezzell,
Jo Conn Guild
" ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 23 January 2009. 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.

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)