§410eeee–14 Flow Management

Summary

Require the Secretary of the Army, working with the Secretary of the Interior, to study whether changing the daily timing of releases from Bluestone Lake when outflow is less than 3,000 cubic feet per second could improve recreation in the New River Gorge National River and help protect river life. A draft report must be opened for public comment, and the final report must be sent to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate and the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the United States House of Representatives by December 31, 1989. The final report must include comments from the Secretary of the Interior and the public plus the Army’s responses. Any suggested timing changes must fit other project goals and must not cause significant harm to fishing or other recreation at Bluestone Lake or downstream. The study must look at effects on recreation between Hinton and Thurmond and between Thurmond and the downstream boundary of the New River Gorge National River, taking visitor levels into account. The Army must also run test releases in the summer of 1989 during 24-hour periods when flows are under 3,000 cubic feet per second. Tests must move higher-than-average flows into morning and afternoon hours and collect data on current speed and water surface levels in the river segments. No test may be done when flows are below 1,700 cubic feet per second, and no test may lower flows below that level.