By RICK STEELHAMMER
Charleston Gazette-Mail
(Gazette-Mail photo by Kenny Kemp)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A plan to bring whitewater rafting to a 5.5-mile stretch of the New River from Hawks Nest Dam to Gauley Bridge won’t get underway until next year, following an order issued Wednesday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The FERC granted a request by Hawks Nest Hydro LLC to extend until Nov. 1 a deadline by which a summer recreational flow release and management plan must be completed and submitted for approval, effectively postponing whitewater rafting on the New River Dries until at least next year. The plan was initially to have been completed and filed by July 1.
On Dec. 22, 2017, after several years of public hearings and studies, the FERC granted Hawks Nest Hydro a license to operate the dam for the next 46 years, provided that a number of provisions were met. They included making nine pulsed recreational releases of 2,200 to 2,500 cubic feet of water per second (cfs) on two weekend days in late March, with the rest taking place on weekend days in late June through early August.
Read the entire article: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/outdoors/recreation/commercial-rafting-on-new-river-dries-on-hold-until-after/article_ec9c2d62-8840-50d9-a6c4-ca41dd2435d1.html
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