Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993 TAG: 9308220194
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GRETNA LENGTH: Medium
The water level rises and falls faster than the ocean's tides.
Each time Appalachian Power lets Leesville Lake fill up, the water lifts fallen trees and garbage from the lake's banks; when the water level falls, the trees and garbage are left bobbing in the lake.
Ray Short, who has a small marina on the lake, knows exactly how much Leesville Lake fluctuates - 13 feet. That's how much slack Short had to build into the dock for his floating gas pump.
Short can deal with the ups and downs of the lake, but it's more difficult to do anything with the garbage and logs that make recreational boating at best challenging and at worst hazardous.
"The up and down of it, that's why the lake was put here," Short said. "But the lake is not growing, and I think that's one of the reasons it's not.
"I'm not a smart man, but I wouldn't call that debris; I'd call that trees," he said, pointing to several 40-50-foot-long logs on the shore of the marina.
Leesville Lake is known to Appalachian Power Co. as the lower dam in the hydroelectric generating project at Smith Mountain. The second dam makes generating power at Smith Mountain more efficient.
Leesville dam catches water after it has churned through generator-turbines at Smith Mountain dam. When power demand is low, Appalachian Power pumps water from Leesville back up into Smith Mountain Lake so it can run through the turbines again.
"It's economics," said Mike Thacker, reservoir superintendent for Appalachian Power. "It's the value of energy used for pumping. Off-peak energy in the nighttime is less expensive energy than the energy in the daytime."
So Appalachian Power uses the inexpensive energy to pump water back up into Smith Mountain Lake, then runs it through the turbine-generators when the energy is worth more.
The pump-storage setup with Smith Mountain and Leesville dams works best with Leesville and Smith Mountain lakes fluctuating at a 7-to-1 ratio, according to Thacker. In other words, Smith Mountain Lake fluctuates about 1.8 feet and Leesville Lake fluctuates 13 feet.
But that pumping accounts for the quick changes in the water level of Leesville Lake. That makes Leesville less attractive for recreation than Smith Mountain Lake.
At Leesville, unlike the lake above it, there are no modern condominiums, exclusive golf clubs or lakeside welcome centers. And the real estate market didn't exactly boom when 100 miles of lakefront property was created.
"Right now, all the lots available at Leesville are being bought by people out of state who don't know, or don't check," said Andy Thruston, who runs a convenience store and tackle shop near the lake. "I don't think the state or Appalachian cares what kind of publicity this lake gets."
Thruston tried to promote Leesville Lake a couple of years ago, and his effort seemed briefly to pay off. But the people he attracted to the lake quickly got tired of worrying about tearing up their boats or jetskis on logs.
Now, there's plenty of parking in the lot next to a public boat ramp near the dam.
As for Short, he's trying to get out of the marina business after 20 years. He doesn't attribute the for-sale sign at his marina to the lake's fluctuation. And he won't criticize Appalachian Power, because he says the company sends crews to Leesville to clean up debris.
But he does point out that maybe the Smith Mountain Lake people who complain about debris on the lake should consider themselves fortunate - compared to their neighbors on the lower side of dam.
"What the landowners and the marina owners at Smith Mountain are complaining about is little sticks the size of your arm," Short said. "What we got is trees. I think I got a right to complain.
"Smith Mountain's where the money's at - money talks."
by CNB