Lake Keowee Water Level
Lake Keowee is at 796.60 ft today (Oct 6), 3.40 ft below its 800 ft full pool.
South Carolina · Keowee River
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Water level history
About Lake Keowee
Lake Keowee is a reservoir on the Keowee River in South Carolina, operated by Duke Energy. Its full summer pool sits at 800 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from Duke Energy and reflect the latest reported level.
Understanding Lake Keowee's water level
Lake Keowee is the lower half of a two-lake machine. Duke Energy's Keowee-Toxaway Project, licensed by FERC as Project No. 2503, pairs Keowee with Lake Jocassee upstream, and the Jocassee Pumped Storage Station sits between them. When power is needed, water runs downhill from Jocassee into Keowee through Jocassee's turbines; when demand is low, the same units reverse and pump water from Keowee back up to Jocassee. Keowee itself is formed by two dams, the Keowee Dam on the Keowee River and the Little River Dam on the Little River, which is why the lake has two long arms joined in the middle. Keowee Hydro, a 157.5 megawatt station at the Keowee Dam, began producing power in April 1971 and releases into Hartwell Lake, a Corps of Engineers reservoir. At full pond, 800 feet above sea level, Duke puts the surface at about 17,700 acres with roughly 388 miles of shoreline.
The reason Keowee rarely moves much is Oconee Nuclear Station, the three-unit, 2,554 megawatt plant on its western shore. Oconee draws its condenser cooling water from the lake, and it is unusual among American nuclear plants in relying on the two Keowee Hydro units, rather than diesel generators, as its emergency power source. Under the 2016 license, normal operation keeps Keowee between 800 and 796 feet, a band about one foot higher than Duke held it before relicensing. The original 1966 license allowed a drawdown of 25 feet, and the lake swung as much as 16 feet in the 1970s and 1980s. Oconee was later modified to run normally with the lake down 10 feet, and since December 1, 2019, 790 feet has been Keowee's critical elevation. Jocassee, by contrast, is allowed to swing 30 feet, from 1,110 down to 1,080.
The lake covered more than farmland. Two sites of Keowee, the principal town of the Lower Cherokee, lay along the Keowee River, along with Fort Prince George, the British post built nearby in the 1750s. University of South Carolina archaeologists excavated the town and fort sites in 1970, about eighteen months before the water reached them, and recovered thousands of artifacts. Cemeteries in the basin, including the Old Pickens cemetery at Robertson's Ford, were moved before flooding. Keowee is now also a regional water source. Greenville Water's Adkins treatment plant has drawn from the lake since 1985, the city of Seneca also has a large intake, and two lakeside communities pump from it for irrigation. How much more water the Upstate can take from Keowee has become a live fight between Greenville Water and the Pickens Regional Joint Water System.
Lake Keowee — frequently asked
What is Lake Keowee's full pond level?
800 feet above mean sea level. Duke Energy's license documents also express this as 100.0 feet on a local datum, so a lake at 97 feet local is 797 feet above sea level. At full pond the lake covers about 17,700 acres by Duke's figures, with around 388 miles of shoreline, though other published sources give figures closer to 18,500 acres.
What is the normal operating range for Lake Keowee?
Between 800 and 796 feet under normal, non-drought conditions, as set by the 2013 Relicensing Agreement and the new FERC license issued in August 2016. That four-foot band is tight for a hydro reservoir because Oconee Nuclear Station depends on the lake for cooling water and Keowee Hydro serves as the plant's emergency power source. Duke may go lower for planned maintenance but avoids doing so between April 1 and May 15, the bass spawning window.
Why is Lake Keowee low?
Usually drought. When the Keowee-Toxaway basin enters the Low Inflow Protocol, the lake's allowed floor steps down: 796 feet at Stage 0, 795 at Stage 1, 793 at Stage 2, 792 at Stage 3, and 791.5 at Stage 4, with 790 as the absolute critical elevation. Duke also cuts the weekly water it must release into Hartwell Lake at each stage and asks water suppliers and lakefront residents to reduce withdrawals.
How does the Low Inflow Protocol work on Lake Keowee?
Each month Duke checks combined usable storage in Keowee, Jocassee, and Bad Creek, the Corps of Engineers drought level on the Savannah, the U.S. Drought Monitor, and three stream gages. Stage 0 is a watch and Stage 4 is an emergency. Required weekly releases from Keowee fall from 25,000 acre-feet toward 7,500, and once Duke's usable storage drops below 12 percent, no further releases are made to support downstream needs. Stage 1 was declared in September 2024.
How far can Lake Keowee be drawn down?
No more than 10 feet under the current license, to 790 feet. The original 1966 license allowed 25 feet. Until December 1, 2019 the practical floor was 794.6 feet, because Oconee Nuclear Station could not operate normally below that; Duke modified the plant so it can run with the lake 10 feet down. Duke modeling for relicensing showed the lake sitting 7 to 10 feet below full pond less than 1 percent of the time.
What is the connection between Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee?
Jocassee Dam releases directly into Keowee, and the Jocassee Pumped Storage Station runs in both directions, generating as water drops into Keowee and pumping it back uphill when power is cheap. Its first two units began commercial operation in 1973 and the last two in 1975. Jocassee is in turn the lower reservoir for Duke's Bad Creek pumped storage station, which began operating in 1991. In droughts the two lakes are drawn down together.
What bass are in Lake Keowee?
All four black bass found in South Carolina, but the mix is not natural. SCDNR reports that Alabama bass, often called spotted bass, were introduced into Keowee by anglers and that smallmouth were illegally introduced as well. Most redeye-type bass caught in the lake are now hybrids with Alabama bass, and pure native Bartram's bass have become hard to find. The lake is deep, clear, and relatively infertile.
Other lakes near Lake Keowee
- Lake MarionSC
- Lake JocasseeSC
- Lake MoultrieSC
- J. Strom Thurmond Lake (Clarks Hill)GA/SC
- Lake MurraySC
- Lake HartwellGA/SC
See current levels for all 11 South Carolina lakes and reservoirs →
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