This week, another important step was taken down the long road of bringing a whitewater park to the City of Oroville, California. On Tuesday, October 17th, the Oroville City Council voted unanimously to hire McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group to conduct the first phase environmental assessment for the whitewater park. Through the assessment, McLaughlin will consider a number of alternative sites and consult with numerous local, state and federal agencies to assess the environmental permitting requirements for building the park. The process will also examine whether there are any potential deal-breakers that could stop the project from moving forward.
Oroville’s vibrant recreation economy was heavily impacted with the construction of the Oroville Dam on the Feather River in the 1960’s. At 770 feet, the dam is a keystone of the California Water Project, which is administered by California’s Department of Water Resources. It inundates over 60 miles of the Feather River, and with a project this size, restoring recreation opportunities in this case goes beyond American Whitewater’s efforts on other rivers to restore flows. As a result, AW first proposed the idea of a whitewater park in 2001 during FERC relicensing negotiations. In 2006, over 50 stakeholders signed a settlement agreement outlining operations at the dam, and included the mandate to look into whether a whitewater park in Oroville was feasible.
American Whitewater commends the City of Oroville for taking a strong leadership position in the effort to get closer to making the whitewater park a reality. We all are ready to see Oroville’s recreation economy come back to life and are glad to see the process moving forward!