This Land, Your Land

Duke Energy plans to halt water releases from Nantahala Lake this fall for repair work, effectively ending the rafting season downstream, according to the Smoky Mountain News.

On October 5, Duke Energy will shut down the 67-year-old generator at its hydropower operation below the Nantahala dam for maintenance, and cease water releases. The predictable flow of water from the releases is crucial to rafting outfitters operating in Natahala River Gorge.

"There’s going to be two to four weeks’ lost revenue for sure, and a lack of things for tourists to do,” Steve Matz, owner of Adventurous Fast Rivers Rafting and president of the Nantahala Gorge Association, told the Smoky Mountain News.

Duke Energy says in a news release (not yet on the Duke Energy site at the time of this post) that a three-month, planned outage is better than a six- to nine-month unplanned one. The timing also limits repairs to the tail end of the rafting season, giving Gorge businesses plenty of advance notice, the release says.

Repairs to the generator should be completed by December.