Maurice Blackburn helped craft Catawba-Wateree license
Let us give special thanks to CCC member Maurice Blackburn who served as the club's representative during the Catawba-Wateree relicensing negotiations with Duke Energy and many, many stakeholders. This required years of effort.
The 40-year license went into effect Nov. 1, 2015 and will expire in 2055, although Duke wants the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make this a 50-year license.
Duke has outlined plans to add canoe and kayak launches and portages around dams at its 11 developments along the Catawba-Wateree River. (The river is called the Catawba in North Caroina, but becomes the Wateree when it enters South Carolina.)
The license provides scheduled recreational releases at dams. Whitewater boaters will be most interested in the releases planned for the long and short bypass reaches at Great Falls south of Charlotte from March through September.
Release schedules will be available from a Duke Energy website and over the phone.
The license will require Duke to establish conservation easements in the riparian corridor along 22 miles of the Johns, Catawba, and Linville rivers and about 6.6 miles of tributaries to the Catawba.
The license also requires conservation measures for state-protected species, including American eel, flat bullhead, snail bullhead, robust redhorse, freshwater mussels, rocky shoals spider lily, bald eagle, little blue heron and Rafinesque’s big-eared bat.
By Bob Brueckner
CCC Conservation Chair