<p>On April 23rd, American Whitewater filed comments with Western Carolina Paddlers
to the Federal Energy Regulatory commission that cite significant inadequacies
with the relicensing of 4 dams that regulate the Cheaoh and Little Tennessee
River. This significant collaborative effort documents the power company’s abuse
of the Alternative Licensing Process and the breakdown of nearly three years
of negotiations between the power company (Tapoco Inc) and the rest of the stakeholders.</p>
<p>Currently negotiations are moving forward between Tapoco and some stakeholders
but the recreation community and several other interests have been categorically
excluded from these negotiations. American Whitewater is disappointed in Tapoco’s
decision to not include recreation in the settlement discussions. The decision
completely disregards the massive amount of work that American Whitewater, Western
Carolina Paddlers, Carolina Canoe Club, and several outfitters have put into
the stakeholder process. We have attended essentially all of the multi-day monthly
stakeholder meetings as well as many working group meetings, helped with the
design and implementation of the recreation studies, and offered significant
written and oral comments throughout the process. We undertook these significant
efforts in collaboration assuming that Tapoco intended to negotiate in good
faith as the process drew to a close. However, as the negotiations neared the
settlement deadline of February 2003, Tapoco made it clear that they intended
to provide NO releases in the world class Cheoah River for whitewater recreation.
They maintained this position and submitted only to the requests of the resource
agencies for some limitted boatable flows intended to fulfill ecological restoration
goals.</p>
<p>The Cheoah River offers roughly nine miles of nearly continuous class IV whitewater
that drops 100 feet per mile through a narrow road-side channel. The river flows
clear and beautifully through some of the most aesthetic National Forest Lands
in Western North Carolina and the Southeast as a whole. Scheduled releases on
the Cheoah would obviously change paddling as we know it in the Southeast, and
would offer a significant economic boost to Graham County.</p>
<p>We have now filed comments with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that
request our interests be considered and mandated by the FERC in any new license
that is issued for the Tapoco Project. We will have several more opportunities
to communicate directly with the FERC and are optomistic that they will recognize
the inadequacies in the Tapoco License Application that was recently filed,
and grant us recreatoinal releases and access that will adequately mitigate
the 4 dams’ significant impacts on whitewater recreation. </p>
<p>Our comments are now part of the public record and can be read by clicking
<a href="http://americanwhitewater.org/resources/repository/MOITapocoAW030421jtg.doc ">Here
</a></p>
<p>Special thanks go out to Rod Baird and Chris Bell for all their hard work on
this project and these comments.</p>
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