American Whitewater needs information from any of you that have paddled the
Hoosic River below Schagticoke. This section is in Eastern NY state just east
of Troy. Your responses to questions below are critical for securing future
whitewater releases in the hydropower relicense proceeding. We have no
information on the difficulty, quality and preferred boating flows for the
Hoosic. American Whitewater has been invited into the final stages of settlement
talks with Erie, the FERC and other stakeholders. Your responses to the
questions below are needed by July 1 for the settlement.
Erie (formerly Niagara Mohawk) operates the dam and powerhouse in a fashion that
bypasses a 2 mile reach of the river. The river drops 146 feet over this 2 mile
distance. The river starts out below the dam with a 35 foot waterfall! Access
is an issue. Below the powerhouse the Hoosic flows for another 7 miles before
joining the Hudson dropping 50 feet over that distance. The river from the
powerhouse to the Hudson is a scenic Class II run.
The power plant was shutdown from 1998-2000 causing water to spill over the dam
into the 2 mile bypass reach.
Did any of you run either section of the river at this time? If so please
answer the questions below. Be sure to answer the questions for each reach
separately. Reach 1 is Schagticoke dam to the powerhouse. Reach 2 is from the
powerhouse downstream.
Contact information:
Name:
Address:
Phone:
Email:
Section Boated (circle one):
Reach 1:Schagticoke dam to the powerhouse
Reach 2: Powerhouse downstream
Questions:
1. Date you ran the Hoosic:
A. Did you boat Reach
2. Your estimate of the flow (cfs)?
3. Number in your party:
4. What class run is this?
5. What rivers and river sections is it comparable to?
6. What skill level would a paddler need to safely paddle this section?
Novice Intermediate Advanced Expert
7. Relative to the flow you boated how much water would it take for this
section to be minimally boatable (cfs)?
8. Relative to the flow you boated how much water would it take for this
section to be optimally boatable (cfs)?
9. If there were optimal water and channel clearance, would you boat thissection?
A. Every time there was a release
B. Occasionally
C. Only if nothing else were running
D. Never
10. Would you recommend this section to others? Y N why?
11. Rate the quality of this run.
A. unacceptable
B. poor
C. marginal
D. good
E. excellent
Thanks for your time answering questions. Send your responses to