Barren River Lake draw down schedule

[JR19]

Been reading a interesting topic over on another website ( fishin.com / Ky discussion board) about the draw down this year. They claim that they are going to have the lake at winter pool buy next week. Now that is impossible even if they open the main gates all the way there is no way they could pull out 27 feet of water in one week. Currently the lake is 553.4 Summer pool 552 Winter pool 525 the main gates are set at .70 with a discharge rate of (i think it was around 2800CFS) the lake has been falling 6-8" per day for the last 10 days. We were at Barren on Sep 3 and the lake was around 5 feet over then. Yes they have been pulling the lake but Hurricane Katrina is the reason why.

According to the rumor the reason they are going to go to a early winter pool this year is because some parts of the Mississippi are dangerously low and needs water bad.

Nolin and Rough came up with the Hurricane rain and they pulled them back down to within 1 foot of summer pool and turned the main gates off. They feed Green River then the Ohio then the Mississippi just like Barren and nothing is being said about them getting a early drawdown so that is why I think there is something fishy about the story.


They may pull it down early but there is now way a lake the size of Barren River would even make a inch differance in the Mississippi. Has anybody else heard anything about Barren having a early drawdown and what the reason might be
JR19

[EdDavisKY]

Pffft rumors


Modified by Bassin19X at 2:57 AM 9/13/2005

[Daniel]

I guess I better get the jon boat ready! I'm going to mark my map when the water goes down this winter.

[CincyBas]

Good Idea Daniel.
I did that last year on a local lake. Found some real good spots. I took pictures and saved them on a hand held GPS. I think I had 25 wavepoints saved and 50 pictures.

The year before I did the same thing and thought I would remember where the cover was when the water went back up but I could find hardly any of it.

[CatFan]

It was a typo in the report. They meant SUMMER pool. It's high right now.

[JR19]

I knew when I read the story that it was false but since I have two weeks vacation planned for Oct 3-17 the story did get me worried that there may not be much water left. I called the CORP office and got the story straight. Everything is right on schedule. On Sept 15 they predict the lake level to be 552 summer pool. Every year between Sept 15 and Oct 15 they draw 2 feet and then after Oct 15 they open the main gates and start the winter draw down. It takes several weeks to get to winter pool 525. Rain fall will determine how soon they hit winter pool but traditionally it is well into Dec and sometimes Jan.

JR19