American Whitewater’s conservation program focuses on dam relicensing and continued protection of key watersheds on public land. American Whitewater is a founding member and current Steering Committee member of the California Hydropower Reform Coalition. American Whitewater has participated in the relicensing of 22 hydro projects throughout the state. Our goals are to secure annually scheduled whitewater releases, access improvements, real time flow information and improved instream flows for river ecological purposes.
Recent Successes
- Annual schedule of whitewater flows negotiated on Kern No. 3
- Annual schedule of whitewater flows for the San Joaquin River Big Creek No. 4
- Whitewater flow studies on Pit 4 and Pit 5 reaches of the Pit River
- Whitewaer flow study on Borel reach of the Kern River
- Whitewater flow studies on the Florence to Mono and Chawanakee Gorge reaches of the San Joaquin
- Whitewater flow study on Piru Creek
Ongoing Projects
- Working closely with the Ecological Resources Committee (ERC) in charge of the Adaptive Management Plan for the Mokelumne
- Serve on the ERC and provide real-time flow information on the N Fork Feather and monitor whitewater releases that occur monthly June through October
- Relicense proceedings on Belden and Poe reaches of the N Fk Feather
- Working with collaborative stake holders group on license conditions including annual schedule of whitewater flows, access improvements and real-time flow information for the Pit River
Future Challenges
- Develop public access below the dam, improve access and egress off Piru reservoir and secure real-time flow information on Piru Creek
- Negotiate settlement agreement for improved access, real-time flow information and augmenting flows on the S Fk American
- Whitewater releases on the Belden reach for the Upper N Fk Feather Hydro Project