186 MULTIPLE PURPOSE RIVER DEVELOPMENT 



further refined through studies analyzing alternative sizes of struc- 

 tures proposed for the site.^* 



The recommended structure for the Howell Mill Shoals site was 

 approximately 100 feet in height with spillway crest at elevation 

 490. Storage for flood control contemplated 271,500 acre-feet in 

 the power pool between elevations 480 and 490, to be shared 

 according to the seasonal rule curve. That is, the power pool 

 would be drawn down from normal pool level at elevation 490 

 to elevation 480 uniformly during the period from September 1 to 

 January 1. It would then be permitted to rise uniformly to the 

 normal power pool level between January 1 and May 1, and held 

 at elevation 490 until September 1 signalled again the time for 

 the seasonal drawdown. In addition, 180,100 acre-feet of surcharge 

 storage between elevations 490 and 495 would be available to 

 provide a total of 451,600 acre-feet.-^ This total is exceeded con- 

 siderably by the amount of controlled storage (688,000 acre-feet 

 of controlled surcharge storage and 191,000 acre-feet seasonally 

 available in the power pool) contemplated originally in the Ala- 

 bama Power Company's proposal. The storage in the company's 

 plan, however, is located at three sites along a 100-mile reach of 

 river, and has been judged to be "less effective" than the amount 

 of controlled storage to be concentrated at the one site in the 

 Corps' Howell Mill Shoals plan of development.^^ The Corps of 

 Engineers has estimated that in order to be as effective as the 

 Howell Mill Shoals plan, the flood control storage would have to 

 be augmented in the proposed Kelly Creek reservoir by about 

 65,000 acre-feet.-^ This would require increasing the height of the 

 spillway gate about three feet and obtaining flowage easements on 

 perhaps five or six thousand additional acres behind the Kelly 

 Creek Dam.^^ 



A curious result emerges from analysis of the effects of Section 5 

 of Public Law 436. On the one hand, the Corps of Engineers' 



^ Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, Mobile, Alabama, Howell Mill Shoals Dam, 

 Report on Preliminary Height of Dam Study, August 1954. 



^Between elevations 495 and 518.1, however, there would be an additional 

 1,397,000 acre-feet of surcharge storage for partial flood control regulations in 

 the Corps of Engineers' proposed structure. 



^ Itschner letter, op. cit. 



"Ibid. 



^Alabama Power Company, Application, op. cit.. Exhibit H, Figure 5. 



