Regulated Rivers: American Whitewater's Hydropower Program

American Whitewater has a long-standing program opposing new dam construction, working with dam owners to improve instream flows at existing dams, and advocating for removal of dams where necessary. American Whitewater initiated this campaign in 1957 with a letter filed in opposition to the construction of Glen Canyon Dam. Over the years we have established ourselves as the national leader representing whitewater recreation interests integrated with river conservation ethics. American Whitewater’s Regulated Rivers Program focuses primarily on private hydropower dams under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) jurisdiction (map of these projects by Congressional District). American Whitewater also applies knowledge and expertise gained in the FERC arena to dams managed by the Army Corps of Engineer Dams and Bureau of Reclamation, as well as private dams where opportunity arises.

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2.1 American Whitewater’s Regulated Rivers Program

2.2 Rivers We Have Worked On

2.3 How Dams Impact Rivers

2.4 River Renewal: Restoring Rivers Through the FERC Relicense Process

2.5 FERC Jurisdiction

2.6 Balance of Power

2.7 The Relicensing Process

2.8 Filing Comments with the FERC

2.9 Small Hydro

2.10 Hydrology: Collecting and Analyzing the Data

2.11 The Natural Hydrograph Concept

2.12 Project Economics: Calculating the Cost of Instream Flows

2.13 Whitewater Flow Studies

2.14 BoatableDays

2.15 Dam Removal

2.16 Examples of Proposals and Comments

2.17 Access at FERC projects

2.18 Ecological and Hydrological Studies

2.19 Examples of Variable Flow Regimes