The partially navigable Emory River connects with the Clinch near the TVA's Kingston Steam Plant just upriver from the meeting with the Tennessee.

Including the Clinch and Emory arms, Watts Bar has 722 miles (1,160 km) of shoreline and over 39,000 acres (160 km2) of water surface.

Watts Bar Lake was affected by the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill.

[3] (The state of Tennessee advises against eating fish caught in certain areas of the lake due to PCB contamination.

)[4] The area also provides many opportunities for birdwatching, with an extremely large population of great blue herons, over 120 nesting pairs of osprey, and a few bald eagles living on or near the lake.