Impact of flow regulation and powerplant effluents on the flow and temperature regimes of the Chattahoochee River— Atlanta to Whitesburg, Georgia
Open Access
- 1 January 1979
- report
- Published by US Geological Survey in Professional Paper
Abstract
A calibrated and verified transient flow-temperature model was used to evaluate the effects of flow regulation and powerplant loadings on the natural temperature regime of the Chattahoochee River in northeast Georgia. Estimates were made of both instantaneous and average natural temperatures in the river during an 8-day period in August 1976. Differences between the computed average natural temperature and an independent estimate of natural temperature based on observed equilibrium temperatures were less than 0.5?C. Downstream of the powerplants, the combined thermal effects of flow regulation and powerplant effluents resulted in mean daily river temperatures about equal to or less than computed mean natural temperatures. Thus the thermal impact of heated effluents was offset by the cooling effects of structural regulation. An independent analysis of historical river- and air-temperature data, although considerably less accurate than model computations, provided substantially the same result. The range and rates of change of computed natural...Keywords
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