Localwaters

Watts Bar Lake is a reservoir on the Tennessee River created by Watts Bar Dam by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Watts Bar derives it’s name from Watt Island, an island in the Tennessee River near mile marker 529. No one seems to know where Watt island got it’s name.

Located about midway between Chattanooga and Knoxville, the lake begins as the Tennessee River below Fort Loudon Dam (35°47?30?N 84°14?34?W) in Lenoir City, Tennessee and stretches 72.4 miles (116.5 km) to Watts Bar Dam (35°37?15?N 84°46?55?W), near Spring City, Tennessee. The Clinch River connects to the main channel of the lake at mile 568 (35°51?50?N 84°31?50?W) near Southwest Point (site of Andrew Jackson and John Sevier’s 1803 confrontation[1]) in Kingston, Tennessee. The widening of the Clinch by the lake makes that river navigable all the way up to Melton Hill Dam (35°53?5?N 84°18?0?W), which is equipped with a navigation lock allowing navigation upstream through Oak Ridge and Clinton. The partially navigable Emory River connects with the Clinch near the TVA’s Kingston Steam Plant just upriver from the meeting with the Tennessee. Including the Clinch and Emory arms, Watts Bar has 722 miles (1,160 km) of shoreline and over 39,000 acres (160 km²) of water surface. Minor tributaries include Poplar Creek, Caney Creek, and White’s Creek. The lake contains several large islands, most notably Thief Neck Island, Long Island, and Sand Island.

Watts Bar Lake was heavily polluted by the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill.

Watts Bar’s sport fishing ratings for crappie, black crappie, largemouth bass, and spotted bass are at or near the top in the TVA system.[2] (The state of Tennessee advises against eating fish caught in certain areas of the lake due to PCB contamination.)[3] The area also provides many opportunities for birdwatching, with an extremely large population of great blue herons, over 120 nesting pairs of osprey, and a few bald eagles living on or near the lake.[4] Several parks and camps are located on the lake, including the John Knox Center[5] and the Boy Scout facility Camp Buck Toms. Description Credit: Wikipedia

From TVA’s description:

Watts Bar Dam, located about midway between Knoxville and Chattanooga, is one of nine TVA dams on the Tennessee River. The reservoir is popular for boating, fishing, swimming, camping, and other outdoor activities. A scenic overlook near the dam provides visitors with a panoramic view of the reservoir and surrounding countryside.

Before TVA created Watts Bar and other reservoirs above Chattanooga, the city had one of the most serious flooding problems in the nation. Now the river that often threatened the city contributes to its economy as a major artery for barge traffic.

Construction of Watts Bar Dam began in 1939. It was completed in January 1942, three weeks after Pearl Harbor, and provided urgently needed electricity for the war effort.

The dam is 112 feet high and stretches 2,960 feet across the Tennessee River.

Watts Bar Dam is a hydroelectric facility. It has five generating units with a net dependable capacity of 182 megawatts. Net dependable capacity is the amount of power a dam can produce on an average day, minus the electricity used by the dam itself.

Watts Bar Reservoir has 722 miles of shoreline and over 39,090 acres of water surface.

The reservoir has a flood-storage capacity of 379,000 acre-feet.

To maintain the water depth required for navigation, the minimum winter elevation for Watts Bar Reservoir is 735 feet. The typical summer operating range is between 740 and 741 feet.

In addition to forming a navigable 72-mile-long reservoir on the Tennessee River, Watts Bar also creates a slack-water channel for navigation more than 20 miles up the Clinch River and 12 miles up the Emory River.

Watts Bar has one 60- by 360-foot lock that lifts and lowers barges as much as 70 feet to Chickamauga Reservoir. The lock handles more than a million tons of cargo a year. Description courtesy of TVA

Please consider showing your appreciation of Watts Bar Lake by picking up some litter during your next visit, many hands make light work.