The day after Thanksgiving, we dropped in on our friends and MWDG clients surfing it up at the Holtwood whitewater park. The day was sunny and warm for November, and drivers were parking each other in. Project leaders Topher Smith and Brian Dorsey, who have been working for high quality recreation below the dam for TEN years were on hand, along with local native Stephen Wright and DC neighbors Bryan Kirk and Jordan Poffenberger, MWDG’s former intern, former OC1 and C1 Freestyle World Champion, and current civil engineering undergrad.
Topher says the community is super pleased about the good rapport that has been developed with the Talen Energy dam operations management, and that while the water levels vary a bit. they are seeing levels in a range at or near the target, and all’s well.
The Holtwood season has come to an end so we’ll look forward to the start of 2016 releases in March! The whitewater schedule for 2016 will be posted on the Talen Energy website once flows are scheduled. Dependent on sufficient flow (31,000 – 61,500 cfs), water will flow to the facility in March. April, May and June will be quiet during shad season, and releases will resume in July for Wednesday and Friday afternoons, Saturdays and Sundays…again, dependent on sufficient flow.
Thank you Aaron Asquith and John Anderson for the design and project management, for Stephen Wright and Jimmy Blakeney for their pre-construction evaluation assessment assistance, and to the many boaters who have attended many meetings for many years.
