Mountain Island Lake, North Carolina: Analysis of ambient conditions and simulation of hydrodynamics, constituent transport, and water-quality characteristics, 1996–97

Bales, Jerad D.; Sarver, Kathleen M.; Giorgino, Mary J.

doi:10.3133/wri014138

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…The risk analysis of dam-break flood is considered as a more urgent topic with the development of social economy, as the population and social wealth are more concentrated in the lower reaches of the reservoir (Bales et al, 2001;Mohsin and Muhammad Umar, 2013;Balogun and Ganiyu, 2017). However, the occurrence of the dam break and the formation of the associated flood are unsteady and unpredictable, which poses threat to the safety of life (Asnaashari et al, 2014;Derdous et al, 2015).…”

Section: Hydrodynamic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk Assessment of Dam-Breach Flood Under Extreme Storm Events

Lin

Huang

Wang

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

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In recent years, as a result of increasingly intensive rainfall events, the associated water erosion and corrosion have led to the increase in breach risk of aging dams in the United States. In this study, a hydrodynamic model was used to the inundation simulation under three hypothetical extreme precipitation-induced homogeneous concrete dam-breach scenarios. All hydraulic variables, including water depth, flow velocity, and flood arriving time over separated nine cross-sections in the Catawba River, were calculated. The hypothetical simulation results illustrate that the impact of Hurricane Florence’s rainfall is far more severe over the downstream of hydraulic facilities than that of the Once-in-a-century storm rainfall event. Although Hurricane Florence’s rainfall observed in Wilmington had not historically happened near the MI Dam site, the river basin has a higher probability to be attacked by such storm rainfall if more extreme weather events would be generated under future warming conditions. Besides, the time for floodwaters to reach cross-section 6 under the Hurricane Gustav scenario is shorter than that under the Once-in-a-century rainfall scenario, making the downstream be inundated in short minutes. Since the probability can be quantitatively evaluated, it is of great worth assessing the risk of dam-break floods in coastal cities where human lives are at a vulnerable stage.

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Section: Hydrodynamic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk Assessment of Dam-Breach Flood Under Extreme Storm Events

Lin

Huang

Wang

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

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“…They are surrounded by public parklands and high-value private residential properties and are important recreational and economic resources (i.e., fishing and boating) for nearby urban and suburban communities. Mountain Island Lake, in particular, is also used as a drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of residents around Charlotte, NC. , Water contamination from discharge of coal ash effluents and their impacts on aquatic organisms − have been previously reported for a few of these lakes. Here, we hypothesize that bottom sediments of these lakes may preserve the legacy of undocumented historic coal ash releases from the associated coal-fired power plants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy of Coal Combustion: Widespread Contamination of Lake Sediments and Implications for Chronic Risks to Aquatic Ecosystems

Wang

Cowan

Seramur

et al. 2022

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Elevated concentrations of toxic elements in coal ash pose human and ecological health risks upon release to the environment. Despite wide public concerns about water quality and human health risks from catastrophic coal ash spills and chronic leaking of coal ash ponds, coal ash disposal has only been partially regulated, and its impacts on aquatic sediment quality and ecological health have been overlooked. Here, we present a multiproxy approach of morphologic, magnetic, geochemical, and Sr isotopic analyses, revealing unmonitored coal ash releases over the past 40 to 70 years preserved in the sediment records of five freshwater lakes adjacent to coal-fired power plants across North Carolina. We detected significant sediment contamination and potential chronic ecological risks posed by the occurrence of hundreds of thousands of tons of coal ash solids mainly resulting from high-magnitude stormwater runoff/flooding and direct effluent discharge from coal ash disposal sites. The proximity of hundreds of disposal sites to natural waterways across the U.S. implies that such contamination is likely prevalent nationwide and expected to worsen with climate change.

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Simulated Limnological Effects of the Shasta Lake Temperature Control Device

Bartholow

Hanna

Saito

et al. 2001

Environmental Management

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We estimated the effects of a temperature control device (TCD) on a suite of thermodynamic and limnological attributes for a large storage reservoir, Shasta Lake, in northern California. Shasta Dam was constructed in 1945 with a fixed-elevation penstock. The TCD was installed in 1997 to improve downstream temperatures for endangered salmonids by releasing epilimnetic waters in the winter/spring and hypolimnetic waters in the summer/fall. We calibrated a two-dimensional hydrodynamic reservoir water quality model, CE-QUAL-W2, and applied a structured design-of-experiment simulation procedure to predict the principal limnological effects of the TCD under a variety of environmental scenarios. Calibration goodness-of-fit ranged from good to poor depending on the constituent simulated, with an R2 of 0.9 for water temperature but 0.3 for phytoplankton. Although the chemical and thermal characteristics of the discharge changed markedly, the reservoir's characteristics remained relatively unchanged. Simulations showed the TCD causing an earlier onset and shorter duration of summer stratification, but no dramatic affect on Shasta's nutrient composition. Peak inreservoir phytoplankton production may begin earlier and be stronger in the fall with the TCD, while outfall phytoplankton concentrations may be much greater in the spring. Many model predictions differed from our a priori expectations that had been shaped by an intensive, but limited-duration, data collection effort. Hydrologic and meteorological variables, most notably reservoir carryover storage at the beginning of the calendar year, influenced model predictions much more strongly than the TCD. Model results indicate that greater control over reservoir limnology and release quality may be gained by carefully managing reservoir volume through the year than with the TCD alone.

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Mountain Island Lake, North Carolina: Analysis of ambient conditions and simulation of hydrodynamics, constituent transport, and water-quality characteristics, 1996–97

Abstract: Measured and simulated near-surface nitrate concentrations at (A) McDowell Creek cove (site 07), (B) Mountain Island Lake between McDowell Creek and Gar Creek (site 09), (C) Gar Creek cove (site 11), and (D) Mountain Island Lake at N.C. Highway 16 (site 14

Cited by 7 publications

References 4 publications

Risk Assessment of Dam-Breach Flood Under Extreme Storm Events

Risk Assessment of Dam-Breach Flood Under Extreme Storm Events

Legacy of Coal Combustion: Widespread Contamination of Lake Sediments and Implications for Chronic Risks to Aquatic Ecosystems

Simulated Limnological Effects of the Shasta Lake Temperature Control Device

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