Lake Wateree Water Level
Lake Wateree is at 222.70 ft today (Oct 6), 2.80 ft below its 225.5 ft full pool.
South Carolina · Wateree River
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Water level history
About Lake Wateree
Lake Wateree is a reservoir on the Wateree River in South Carolina, operated by Duke Energy. Its full summer pool sits at 225.5 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from Duke Energy and reflect the latest reported level.
Understanding Lake Wateree's water level
Lake Wateree is the last of the eleven reservoirs Duke Energy runs on the Catawba-Wateree chain, so every drop of rain that falls from Lake James down through Charlotte and Rock Hill eventually has to pass through it. Duke reads all of its lakes on a relative scale where 100.0 feet means full pond, and at Wateree that mark is 225.5 feet above sea level. Under the operating range negotiated in the 2006 relicensing agreement, the normal target is seasonal and runs from 94.5 to 97 feet, which is 220 to 222.5 feet above sea level, so a lake sitting three to five and a half feet below full pond is doing what it is supposed to do. Because much of the shoreline slopes gently and the lake sits at the bottom of the system, it floods more often and stays high longer than any reservoir upstream, a point Duke itself made during relicensing.
The dam went into commercial operation on 7 October 1919, after 39 months of construction and $5.25 million. It is about 3,380 feet long and sits roughly eight miles north of Camden in Kershaw County, with the lake reaching into Fairfield and Lancaster counties. It was designed in the shadow of the July 1916 flood, when back-to-back hurricanes dropped more than 19 inches of rain over the Catawba Valley in three days, and the powerhouse floor was set 49 feet above mean tailwater for that reason. The dam was raised six feet in 1925 to add storage. Voith turbines replaced the original Allis-Chalmers units in the late 1990s, and the station is rated at 56 megawatts. The lake is also the drinking water source for Camden and Lugoff, and the Lake Wateree intake sets the floor for drought operations.
The biggest change to how the lake handles high water came in 2024. As a condition of the 40-year license FERC issued on 25 November 2015, Duke cut about five feet off the spillway, removed some 5,200 tons of concrete, and installed pneumatically controlled steel Obermeyer gates. They add roughly 14,000 cubic feet per second of controlled release capacity and are meant to cut the number of small and moderate floods, the ones that used to push the lake into the 100 to 103 foot range; relicensing documents are clear that they will not do much against the largest storms. To build them, Duke drew the lake down starting 15 October 2022 at about a tenth of a foot a day toward 93.5 feet, which exposed stumps, rocks and fallen trees normally underwater. The removed concrete did not go to a landfill. Working with SCDNR, Duke sank it as fish attractors for crappie and catfish, adding to the 17 attractor sites SCDNR already maintains on the lake.
Lake Wateree — frequently asked
What is Lake Wateree's full pool?
Full pond is 225.5 feet above mean sea level, the point where water would first begin to spill over the dam. Duke Energy reports it as 100.0 feet on its relative scale, and a Duke reading of 97 is therefore 222.5 feet above sea level. The lake is not meant to sit at full pond; the normal target band runs 3 to 5.5 feet below it.
Why is Lake Wateree below full pond?
By design. The relicensing agreement sets a seasonal target of 94.5 to 97 feet on Duke's scale, leaving room below full pond to absorb inflow from ten reservoirs upstream. During a drought, the Catawba-Wateree Low Inflow Protocol lets Duke lower minimum elevations step by step, but not below the critical elevation of 92.5 feet, which protects the municipal water intake on the lake.
What is the record high level on Lake Wateree?
The record is just under 107 feet on Duke's scale, about 232.5 feet above sea level, set by runoff from Hurricane Hugo, which came ashore near Charleston around midnight on 22 September 1989. On 1 January 2016 the lake reached 104.3 feet, the highest since Hugo. Helene pushed it to about 105 feet in late September 2024, with water still pouring over the dam five days after the storm.
Why does Lake Wateree flood so often?
It is the bottom of an eleven-lake chain, so when heavy rain falls around Charlotte and upstream lakes pass water down, Wateree has to take all of it. Much of its shoreline is flat, so a few feet of rise covers docks and yards. In November 2020 the lake was several feet over 100 in what residents counted as the third flood of the year. The new spillway gates, finished in 2024, target those smaller events.
Why was Lake Wateree lowered in 2022?
To install new spillway gates required by the 2015 FERC license. The drawdown began 15 October 2022 at about 0.1 foot per day toward 93.5 feet, and the level moved between that and full pond for 14 to 16 months depending on rain and construction. Some ramps closed and old hazards surfaced. Duke announced the work finished in July 2024 and reopened all ramps, access areas and beaches.
How is the fishing on Lake Wateree?
SCDNR manages the lake for black crappie, striped bass, largemouth bass and catfish, and stocks striped bass regularly. A 2017 SCDNR study found Wateree crappie grow very fast early and that a strong 2010 year class made up every crappie older than age four in their sample. White perch there reached 200 millimeters, about eight inches, by age three, sooner than in the other reservoirs studied.
Where is Lake Wateree State Park?
The park, with a Winnsboro mailing address, covers 238 acres on the shore and has 100 paved campsites, 23 of them on the water, a two-lane boat ramp with fuel at the dock, a tackle shop that hosts tournaments, and the 2.3-mile Desportes Island loop trail. The relicensing agreement also leased a lake management zone to the park.
Flow released below Lake Wateree
This gauge reads the water leaving the dam, which is the number to check for fishing, paddling and downstream conditions. Live flow is tracked on riverlvl.com.
Other lakes near Lake Wateree
- Lake WylieNC/SC
- Richard B. Russell LakeGA/SC
- Lake GreenwoodSC
- Lake MurraySC
- Lake HartwellGA/SC
- Lake MoultrieSC
See current levels for all 11 South Carolina lakes and reservoirs →
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