New Upper Ocoee Agreement Reached
Agreement Allows For Up to 54 Releases

by Kevin Colburn, American Whitewater
March 29th, 2006

 

Moscow, ID—On September 26th, 2003, AW joined TVA commissioner Bill Baxter, Congressman Zach Wamp, Outfitter leaders, and other stakeholders at the Ocoee Olympic Center to sign an agreement for 54 annual releases on the Upper Ocoee River. We posted a web article regarding the successful resolution of this project which we had worked hard on for 8 years. The web article: www.americanwhitewater.org/archive/article/964/

As many paddlers have noticed, the 2006 schedule for the Upper Ocoee provides only 34 days, many of which are for a reduced duration of time. The 2003 agreement faultered, and after a renewed effort by Congressman Wamp's Office, the outfitters, the Southeastern Local Development Corporation, and TVA, a new agreement was reached earlier this year.

The new agreement uses roughly $500,000 in grants and a 1.1 million dollar loan (to be paid back by the outfitters) to pay TVA for 34 annual recreational releases for the next 13 years. TVA has always, under every agreement, required that they be fully reimbursed for every release. The Ocoee is the only river in the Nation where this occurs and is unique to TVA. The reduction in number of days of releases is based primarily on the limited ability of the outfitters to pay for releases. Should financial resource ever allow, the agreement allows the purchase of the full 54 days.

AW would like to acknowledge the work of congressman Zach Wamp and his staff, who have worked diligently for the past several years to facilitate an agreement with the TVA, and to assure that the Ocoee River has water in it. In addition, if it were not for the outfitters negotiating this agreement and paying TVA for water - the river would be dry every day.

In 2018 the agreement that provides water in the Middle Ocoee, and this new agreement on the Upper Ocoee will expire, leaving the subsequent fate of the whole Ocoee as a complete unknown.