Ocoee No. 2 Right Now
Ocoee No. 2's water level has been rising over the past week. Watershed conditions are abnormally dry. Today's forecast calls for patchy fog then sunny.
- 7-day level change
- About the same
- Forecast high
- 79°F
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Overview
Ocoee No. 2 is a small diversion reservoir of about 50 acres on the Ocoee River in Polk County, southeast Tennessee, part of the three-dam TVA Ocoee hydroelectric chain. The Tennessee Valley Authority operates the project, which diverts water through a historic wooden flume to a downstream powerhouse — a design that leaves a famous dry-bed whitewater section when generation is running. Though tiny compared with Parksville upstream, Ocoee No. 2 is central to both power production and the river's recreation identity.
The reservoir itself is heavily silted and functions more as a diversion pool than a conventional recreation lake, with only a few miles of shoreline in a steep gorge setting. Its physical character is defined by the flume, the dam, and the riverbed below that fills only when TVA schedules recreation releases. When the flume is carrying water for generation, the middle Ocoee can run nearly dry; on release days, the same channel becomes a continuous whitewater playground.
Recreation centers on world-class whitewater rafting and kayaking rather than on-lake boating. Commercial outfitters and the U.S. Forest Service manage access for paddlers on release days, while fisheries in the broader Ocoee system are managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Many visitors stage from nearby Parksville Lake campgrounds and put-ins along the Ocoee River corridor.
Water levels at Ocoee No. 2 are managed by TVA for hydropower and scheduled recreation releases in coordination with Ocoee No. 1 (Parksville) and Ocoee No. 3. Monitoring TVA's published Ocoee release schedule is essential for paddlers and anyone planning to use the river below the dam, because conditions change dramatically between generation and recreation-release days.
Ocoee No. 2 is a 50-acre reservoir on the Ocoee River managed by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).