The Lake of Piediluco
Situated
at the south-estern tip of Umbria, bordering with Lazio and confined
between Mount Luco and Mount Caperno, Piediluco lake (the biggest natural
lake in Umbria after Trasimeno lake). closely resembles an alpine lake,
even though the woody ridge contour that retlects upon its waters is much
softer.
It
has an irregular basire a central elongated west te east body branching
out both to the north and south. It is this factor that determines the
formation of a substantial shoreline measuring about 13 km. with respect
te the surface area which measures only 152 sq. km.
The lake
is located at about 370 metres a.s.l. near the village of Piediluco with a
maximum depth of about 20 metres. There are only a few parts of the lake
that are less than 2 metres deep. It has three main tributaries: the only
natural one is Rio Fuscello that originates from the eastern side of Mount
Tillia; the other two aro artifìcial canals. The First canal measuring
about 400 metres, in substitution of the naturat distributary, links the lake with the Velino river and was realized by the
Società Terni Company around about the mid-920s in order to increase
production capacity of the Galleto hydro-electric power station. The
second canal measuring 42Km, most of which is located inside a tunnel, was
constructed between 1929 and 1951 to convey the mid-Nera riverwaters (detoured
from their natural watercourse at Ttiponzo) into the lake. The increasing
industrial demand for electrical energy in Terni has transformed a natural
expanse of water into a great basin of affluences and outflows regulated
manually.
