Stage 3 consists of 40 miles on Lake Eufaula, 10 miles on Aquila lake and 125 miles of a 22,000 cfs aqueduct, 95 miles in Oklahoma and 30 miles in Texas. This segment should ideally have used lake Texoma, but the water in it is brackish with between one half to one percent salinity, so it is unusable for drinking water, and even for agricultural purposes.
It starts out at lake Eufaula:
From there the real aqueduct will start, unencumbered by barge traffic regulation. It will go from the southern tip of Lake Eufaula to lake Atoka, a distance of 40 miles. Lake Atoka is 10 miles long.
Then from Lake Atoka it will pass by lake Texoma on ther downslope of thee Denison dam at an elevation of 640′. From there it will go to Lake Ray Roberts
The elevation at lake Atoka is about 590′. The aqueduct will have a capacity of 22,000 cfs, and it will climb from Eufaula to about 740′ before going down again to lake Atoka. From lake Atoka it will only pump up water for 85 miles. The aqueduct water level drops by 2′ per mile. Total pumping up will be 365′ and going down water release will be 110′ The total power need for this stage will be up to 665 MW assuming 92% pumping and generation efficiency. three 200 MW LFTR SMR will take care of the power needs this stage, and can be used for peak power generation when pumping is temporarily shut off. It is important to keep the water level steady at Lake Ray Roberts.
What’s in it for Oklahoma? Eufaula lake flood control will be greatly enhanced. Lake Atoka flood control will be enhanced and in case of drought extra water will be supplied to keep lake levels steady. There will be about 200 MW virtual hydro-power energy provided for up to 5 hours/day to stabilize the grid with peak power.
What’s in it for Texas? In case of drought Lake Ray Roberts can supply extra water to the Dallas area. The water levels will be stabilized at Lake Ray Roberts. There will be about 400 MW virtual hydro-power energy provided for up to 5 hours/day to stabilize the Texas grid with peak power.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 