Deluge in a Drought

Terry was telling me about a major event taking place on the Potomac this past weekend -- the Olympic qualifying USA Canoe/Kayak Slalom National Championships, the country's premier white-water paddling event.

That must be a real trick, said I.  As well known as the Potomac is for its thrilling falls around the Pencil Sharpener, Pummel and the downright scary Mather Gorge, this hasn't exactly been the year for whitewater.  Or any other kind of water for that matter.  The drought this summer has reduced many rapids to sputtering streams.

Not so in Dickerson, said Terry.  Mother Nature gets all sorts of help from energy giant PEPCO, who provide a steady flow of thermal treated waves as part of their turbine system.

You might wonder how on earth a security conscious public utility and whitewater competitors looking for a challenging course could devise such a splendid facility.  The answer is -- the Barcelona Olympics.

Although the Potomac had always been a regular stop on the circuit because of the aforementioned features, the problem was consistency (as we've seen this year)  Weather conditions produced unpredicatable experiences and top level athletes needed a course with a reliable flow.  And there, right along the Potomac and C&O Canal, was the answer.  A byproduct of energy production, just waiting for adaptive reuse.

Since 1959, the 900 foot long channel has returned cooling water from the Dickerson Generating Station to the Potomac River, 41 miles upstream from Washington. Water is pumped from the river to cool the power plant's three coal-fired generators, and then emptied into the channel for gravity flow back to the river

This is what the 40-foot-wide concrete channel that returned warm-water discharge from the generators back to the Potomac looked like in 1991.  That's right -- warm water.  The first artificial whitewater slalom in the country is actually a linear Jacuzzi that can be used all year round.

In 1991, an aspiring Olympian sold his idea of converting the chute to two of the power plant managers, and, in support of the 1992 Olympics team, and PEPCO approved the insertion of approximately 75 artificial concrete boulders and two wing dams into the channel.

Today, the course has four 200 foot sections, connected in a straight line, end-to-end, with a 2-foot drop at the end of each section. A final 100-foot section ends in the river, with or without a drop, depending on the river level. Overall slope adds another seven feet of drop, for a total course drop of 15 feet plus zero to four feet into the river at the end.

It is, by any standards, a splendid course.  You can see the results of the competition at Bethesda Center of Excellence, who operate the USA Canoe/Kayak National Training Center.

Gold Medalist Joe Jacobi, a native of Bethesda, trained on the Potomac as a youngster and was one of those who rode the artificial course to the top of the Olympic podium in 1992.   Jacobi now heads USA Canoe/Kayak, the governing body for U.S. racing.

So it is a pretty good guess that the Olympians you'll be seeing in London in 2012 were splashing around the Potomac this weekend.  It's worth noting that Maryland also has another of only three artificial whitewater courses in the country.  Farther (a lot farther) up the Potomac in Garrett County you'll find Adventure Sports Center on a mountaintop near Deep Creek Lake.  This whitewater facility opened in 2007 and is open to the general public as well as the venue for national and international competitions.

Once again, Mother Nature, with a little help from her friends, has provided Maryland with some top quality venues prove we're Here To Play -- on every level.