Although the agenda was packed for Sacramento Municiple Utility District's (SMUD) November 3rd board meeting, one of the items not up for discussion was how their ratepayers feel about the current relicensing of SMUD's 17-dam hydropower project on the South Fork American River.

In July, SMUD submitted a license application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that will govern operations of the Upper American River Project (UARP) for the next 40 years.

Coalition steering committee member American Whitewater has just released its River Stewardship Toolkit, a significant portion of which is dedicated to hydropower.

Located just one hour from the Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC metropolitan areas, the Great Falls of the Catawba River has potential as a whitewater boating hotspot for the area. On October 23 and 24, a flow study conducted by Duke Power and attended by kayakers from throughout the region confirmed that Great Falls holds great promise as a highly coveted recreational boating stretch.

In late 2002, Duke Power applied to FERC to amend its license for the Catawba-Wateree project requesting modification of the project boundary to exclude two bypass reaches – stretches of riverbed where the natural water flow is diverted to generate power. One of these bypassed reaches was once the Great Falls of the Catawba, a series of high rapids neighboring a town which took the name Great Falls in regard for the local scenery.

FERC is seeking public comments on recreation usage at Mirant's Rio Project on New York's Mongaup River. In particular, the Commission is seeking comments on Mirant's 2004 Recreation Usage Report, which FERC will use to determine if "changes are needed to the whitewater releases at the project."