Watching the local news on TV early each morning, I often hear mention of the hydroelectric generators at Denison Dam on Lake Texoma. And when the lake level is low, I begin to wonder about how much water pours out of the lake when the turbines are set in motion to generate electricity each day. So, today I visited http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/power/hydropower.html#DENI and tried to understand the data provided by the Army Corps of Engineers. I'm not an engineer, and it didn't make much sense to me, I'll admit. But my point is this - water must flow out of Lake Texoma to operate one or both of the two turbines built to generate electricity. Sometimes only one turbine is put to use and sometimes both are used. In either case, water is flowing out through the dam in order to turn the turbine to generate electricity. The Denison Dam project was so controversial back in the early 1940s that issues regarding construction of the dam came before the Supreme Court two separate times. But the project survived, and it's been generating electricity since 1944. Kylie Dixon posted an article on KXII.com called Inside The Denison Dam. She reports, "Today, the dam's job is more than just containing the mighty Red River. It serves as a hydroelectric power plant, it has the ability to generate 80 megawatts worth of power. That's 4.6 million gallons of water per second or the equivalent to over 19 Waterloo Pools." http://www.kxii.com/news/headlines/Inside_the_Denison_Dam_150241025.html Once again, I'm not an engineer. But that sounds like an awful lot of water, doesn't it? Jonathan Cannon published an article in the Herald Democrat on July 21, 2013 about the aging turbines at the Denison Dam, and their anticipated replacement soon. "The power plant was commissioned in 1944 and it's gotten quite old," said Denison Dam Power Plant Specialist Tom McGraph. 'We're using a lot of the same equipment that we were in 1944, so it's gotten worn out.' He said the Corps plans to replace the turbines, which generate electricity when turned by an inflow of water from Lake Texoma, along with other equipment over the next several years." And his article also quoted engineer Fritha Ohlson as saying, "There will be no discernible change in the volume of water that's moved at all," she said. "There's no anticipated change in the way we've historically operated the project due to the rehab of the units." http://heralddemocrat.com/sections/news/local/corps-planning-rehab-denison-dam-power-plant.html Generating electricity is one of the two main purposes of the Denison Dam; the other is flood control. In other words, recreation on Lake Texoma is not the main purpose. I wonder if there will be enough water in the lake for us to go jug line fishing again this Thanksgiving?