The Corps of Engineers' Carters Dam Pumped Storage Facility

Carters Lake near Chatsworth, Georgia is another Pumped Storage facility. This one differs from Raccoon Mountain in that it is an "in-line" type. The main dam is on the river channel, and a smaller "re-regulation" dam is downstream. Water is released into and pumped back from the pool formed by the re-regulation dam. The dam was built and is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. The power produced here is sold by the Southeast Power Administration (SEPA).

Carters Dam is a rockfill type, measuring 2053 feet long and 445 feet high. 3 saddle dikes add another 700 feet to the impounding structure. The lake is where the Coosawattee River becomes the Oostanaula River, eventually to join the Etowah River at Rome, GA, to become the Coosa River, part of the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin.

This is a view of the Powerhouse and Switchyard. Some of the dam is visible in the foreground.

Looking into the "headrace" channel, leading to the intakes to the penstocks.

Some of the back side of the dam.

The Emergency Gated Spillway. At first we thought this was on the original riverbed but we used to have a link to a diagram that showed it was not...but its not there anymore! This was on the opposite end of the dam from the intakes to the turbines.

A view of the re-regulation pond. The re-regulation dam is not quite visible in the middle left of the photo. Since the pond is so small, it is subject to very wide and sudden fluctuations in level, so no recreational activities are allowed there.

The re-regulation dam, releasing quite a bit of water the day we were there.