A number of news article and this video on our local New River were produced by Tim Thornton Roanoke Times last year. Articles highlight the diverse pressures and benefits and land ownership in this large watershed. The video mentions the Hawksnest project which divert most of the New River (photo at right) through the Gauley mountain to produce hydropower. The Hawk's Nest tunnel is one of the country's worst disasters involving contraction of silicosis while constructing the hydro project. Silicosis was contracted through inhaling rock (silica) dust while blasting. The Hawk's Nest incident and the Hawks Nest tunnel is quietly hidden and forgotten by most, but see new book just published in 2008.
In these news articles there is a glaring omission of the relicensing process underway to re-consider operations of the Claytor Dam project (see hydrograph at right). Numerous studies are underway to address problems that exist with the hydro operations. You can see the study documents and schedules at the Claytor Lake Relicensing website. All studies are to be completed January 15 2009. After comments from stakeholders it is likely that a new license will be granted to AEP from FERC sometime in 2009. As you can tell the conceptual flow diagrams in papers by Richter et al. (2006) and Poff et al. (2003) have to fit into sometimes rigid FERC institutional processes where timeliness is key.
"Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes - one for peace and one for science."
John F. Kennedy
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