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

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

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, Minnesota *Grant County, Nebraska *Grant C ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

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

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 192 ...

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 after James Wat ...

Mount Storm Power Station The Mount Storm Generating Station, located on the west bank of Mount Storm Lake from Bismarck, West Virginia, United States, is a coal-fired power station owned by Dominion Resources. The facility's three units use around 15,000 tons of coal ...

, which provides

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

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 is using 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 divers. 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, USA. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the ...

, one of the windiest spots east of the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, 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, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cou ...

. There is a public boat ramp at the north end of the lake just off

West Virginia Route 93 West Virginia Route 93 is an east–west state highway located in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. WV 93 runs from U.S. Route 48 and West Virginia Route 32 in Davis in Tucker County to U.S. Route 220 near Keyser in Mineral County. ...

. More than 40

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

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