American Whitewater made the first, very successful effort to build a coalitionof a wide array of stakeholders by hosting the Ocoee Symposium at the OlympicWhitewater Center on Friday, May 18th, during the U.S.A. Canoe and Kayak teamtrials, and immediately prior to the Ocoee Rodeo, ensuring a great deal of mediaattention.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) recently announced that it was increasingthe fees that outfitters pay for whitewater releases and terminating the”free” water for events on the Upper Ocoee River. This section of the Ocoee isthe site of the $22 million Olympic Whitewater Center funded by taxpayers. Ironically, the river channel rarely has water due to TVA’s diversion of water to the Ocoee No. 3 powerhouse five miles downstream.
Increasing the cost of whitewater releases will have serious implications for the $20 million a year commercial rafting industry in the Ocoee region.
Up to now, there has been no concerted effort by a broad coalition ofstakeholders to address the fundamental issue of who owns the water, and workto effect a change in the TVA?s outlook. American Whitewater hosted the OcoeeSymposium as a forum to draw together stakeholders in the watershed. The goalwas to establish a dialogue among competing interests in an attempt to develop along-term water management plan for the Ocoee balancing these interests.
Speakers were drawn from the outfitter community, utilities, economicdevelopment interests, state and federal agencies and American Whitewater. Onespeaker, Larry Wall of Georgia Power, gave a brief case history of thatcompany’s work with American Whitewater on Tallulah Gorge, and crystallized theafternoon’s presentations when he told the audience, “We thought they were crazyto want whitewater releases on Tallulah, but once we saw it was possible, andfound that it would be better for the community than producing power with thatwater, well, there was really only one way to go.”
In this case, it is definitely far more beneficial to the community tohave whitewater releases than to use that same water for power generation. The$20 million made each year by commercial outfitters recirculates at least fivetimes in the community, generating a total direct and indirect benefit of $100million. By contrast, the TVA would make only $268,000 from selling the powermade with that water, and that money leaves the community, going straight to TVA’s coffers.
Nor does the TVA suffer undue harm by releasing the water. The Ocoee No. 3powerhouse generates only 28MW – not even 1/100th of TVA’s total generatingcapacity of 29,469 MW. And this will become increasingly marginalized as TVAfurther expands capacity by opening new plants over the next two years.
Residents on Georgia’s Lake Blue Ridge – the reservoir for the Ocoee system -have kept their interests foremost in TVA’s planning. These are extremelywell-connected, influential people who have constantly advocated for keepinglake levels high from May through August, and are now calling for this to beextended through September. Water kept in Lake Blue Ridge during the summer iswater that won’t be generating electricity at peak times. But the Ocoeepowerhouses currently operate 95% of the time, and the lake levels are kept upeven with this demand. As the generation system on the upper Ocoee is organized, TVA can either generate power or release the water into the channel, not both simultaneously. Hence, the water usage would be the same, and the net effect on the lake level zero.
As for the cost to ratepayers: if TVA runs a schedule of 20 releases of 9 hourseach, and the cost of lost power is assessed across the company’s 8 millionratepayers, the cost to each would run 2 cents per year.
Speaker after speaker built the case for continuing releases on the Ocoee. Ifthey had to be paid for, the prices should be within reason, so that outfitters
The coalition has been formed, and will work to draw in additional stakeholdersin the region. Another meeting will take place in late June, to betterformulate the goals and strategies. Boaters and other interested parties fromthe region will be invited to participate, and help spearhead the grassrootsadvocacy that will encourage the TVA to change.
The goal of the coalition is the development of a long-term water management plan that balances the needs of competing interests in the basin including power generation, whitewater recreation and reservoir interests. American Whitewater is optimistic that a plan can be developed to meet these diverse interests.
American Whitewater’s website will carry announcements of upcoming meetings andother advocacy opportunities. After building an e-mail list of local interestedparties, we can set up a list serve. We also hope to develop a chat room forthis issue, so boaters can update one another on the issue.
In addition, our new Conservation and Access Associate, Kevin Colburn, will beaiding local efforts to work with the TVA and reach a mutually agreeablesolution that will ensure the community continues to benefit from thisextraordinary recreational resource.