The Tennessee Valley Authority recently gave a handful of lucky area residents the chance to tour the inside of its facilities at Kentucky Dam to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.
The tours – which consisted of visitors chosen from a collection of lottery entries – were offered by TVA at several of its dams – including the one in far western Kentucky – to give residents a glimpse into how the sites operate, and how they affect the surrounding area.
Ann Martin is a western Kentucky native who attended Thursday’s tour of Kentucky Dam. She said getting to have a rare first hand viewing of the dam’s operations gave her a new appreciation for what it provides for the region.
“It's a power plant. It's here because the water runs that electricity, and that helps all of us,” Martin said. “It [was] a learning experience. And I took away, I guess, that… you drive over it every day, and you really don't know what goes on.”
Kentucky Dam, which was first under construction in 1938 and completed in 1944, is the largest structure out of TVA’s 46 total dams. The multipurpose site is used for regulating water levels downstream, transporting barges on the Tennessee River with its lock system, and creating electricity for the region through hydroelectric power generation, capable of producing up to 184 megawatts of power.
On the tour, Martin and other visitors were able to get a close up look at the dam’s hydroelectric operations in the depths of the facility – at one point even getting to see the underside of an active generator.
Leading one group of visitors under the nearly 90-year-old structure was Kentucky Dam’s plant manager KT Duffy. Along with a better understanding of the dam’s power generation process, Duffy said he wanted residents to leave the tours with a greater appreciation of the dam’s roles that have often been overlooked.
“The dam not only produces electricity, but also its core function is flood control… so making sure that we hold back water before it reaches the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, to ensure that all of our… neighbors downstream don't experience a significant flood event,” Duffy said.
In order of importance, Duffy said flood control is the dam’s main priority, followed closely by its barge transportation services and power generation.
For some guests, this list of priorities was a bit of a surprise.
Martin, who works in tourism, said she didn’t realize before the tour how much of its focus was around preventative planning – even if those precautions have an impact on recreational use of the dam’s waterways.
“Being in the [industry]... you see how the water flow does change tourism. But [I learned] from this tour that it is for our safety and not as much [about preserving tourism in the region],” Martin said.
When preparing for future flooding on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, TVA officials said Kentucky Dam often lowers water levels in late spring to early summer. This is because a large number of other waterways feed into the dam’s reservoir, and it is best to get ahead of potential high waters well before flood season starts in September.
Leaving the tour, Martin said she now sees the whole process through a different perspective.
“You know, we all need to make those tourism dollars, but we understand that there's a lot more dams above us that have to be regulated before it gets to us,” Martin said.
Duffy said he hoped guests would continue to have these conversations about the dam’s importance with others in the community and have a better collective understanding of the site located on the Tennessee River.
“Giving people a good idea of how this facility is actually operated, I feel like it's a good step in stone for the community to communicate with each other about what we do here,” Duffy said.
