Keowee-Toxaway

At Duke Energy, we share a commitment with communities and water users along the basin to ensure that an abundant water supply is available to communities along the river. Conserving water is a shared responsibility among all water users, including individual households, particularly during drought conditions.

As part of our Keowee-Toxaway hydro relicensing process, a partnership was created to address water use by large water users and entities with water intakes. This group developed a protocol with procedures for reductions in water use during periods of low inflow to the Keowee-Toxaway Project (Project).

The development of the low inflow protocol (LIP) was a collaborative effort by the large water users/withdrawers in the Keowee-Toxaway basin. The goal is to take the actions needed in the basin to delay the point at which the Project’s available water storage inventory is fully depleted. While there are no human actions that can guarantee that the basin will never experience operability limitations at water intake structures due to low reservoir levels or low stream flows, this LIP is intended to provide additional time to allow precipitation to restore stream flow, reservoir levels and groundwater levels to normal ranges.

The Keowee-Toxaway Drought Management Advisory Group (KT-DMAG) consists of large water users/withdrawers. The members of this group agree on the conditions set forth in the LIP and will re-evaluate and modify the LIP periodically. Members of this group include:

• S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR)
• S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC)
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
• Each owner of a large water intake used for municipal, industrial or power plant water supply located on the Project reservoirs
• Each owner of a large water intake used for municipal, industrial, or power plant water supply located on any tributary stream within the Keowee-Toxaway River Basin that ultimately drains to Lake Keowee and that agrees to coordinate its drought planning and management under the KT-DMAG
• Each owner of a large water intake used for municipal, industrial or power plant water supply located on the USACE reservoirs that agrees to coordinate its drought planning and management under the KT-DMAG
• Licensee (KT-DMAG Coordinator)

In the LIP, drought stages are determined by the following three indicators:

• How much water is in the reservoirs
• How much water is flowing into the reservoirs
• The U.S. Drought Monitor, a government website that indicates which parts of the country are in a drought and how severe that drought is

We perform a monthly evaluation of these indicators and then issue a report to all large water users along the Keowee, indicating which stage the basin is in and what actions should be taken to help conserve water.

There are five stages, from stage 0 (a watch) to stage 4 (emergency – where water supply is in a critical situation). Actions are detailed for each stage.