Remote Downstream Monitoring of Savannah River Hydropower Releases.

Increased concerns over the water quality associated with hydropower releases have prompted a greater need for accurate and reliable tailrace monitoring techniques. Remote automated monitors afford the best method for continuous, unattended logging of release waters. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has installed and maintained remote monitors below three Savannah River reservoirs, Hartwell, Richard B. Russell, and J. Strom Thurmond. Data obtained from the monitors are utilized for operation of an oxygen-injection system, maintenance of a trout fishery, monitoring pumped storage testing, and evaluation of the water quality entering the Savannah River down-stream of the three impoundments. Each monitor provides real-time information and continuous data records of water quality that are stored onsite and remotely accessible via modem. Maintenance schedules include bi-weekly calibrations combined with bi-monthly servicing. Although no single system design is universally appropriate, by careful consideration of the monitoring objectives, site characteristics, parameters of concern, and available funding, aspects of these monitoring systems may be adapted to meet the specific needs of other sites.