Pigeon River (Tennessee - North Carolina)

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This article describes the Pigeon River which flows from western North Carolina into East Tennessee. For information about other Pigeon Rivers, or places called Pigeon River, please see the Pigeon River disambiguation page.

The Pigeon drainage basin, located within the upper Tennessee drainage basin

The Pigeon River of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee, United States, rises above Canton, North Carolina. Below this, it flows roughly parallel to Interstate 40 for many miles, and is impounded by a dam (Walters Dam) belonging to Progress Energy (Waterville) before entering Tennessee, where it flows into the French Broad River. The river takes its name from the passenger pigeon, an extinct bird that was once abundant in the region.

Recreational rafting is popular in two sections of the river, the Upper and the Lower. Both sections are found in Hartford, Tennessee. The Upper section begins at the powerhouse(located right on the North Carolina/Tennessee border) and features exciting Class III-IV whitewater rapids. The trip is a fast and fun ride. The minimum age requirement for the Upper is 8 years old. The Lower section features gentle waves and beautiful scenery, and can be experienced by children as young as four years old. Scheduled release of the dam is on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. between Memorial Day and Labor Day [1].

The floods following the series of storms spawned by hurricanes Frances and Ivan in September 2004 have changed the character of the river. The rains lasted days and flooding was severe. Portions of the town of Canton were completely underwater and there was significant damage to a large portion of the town. Farther upstream the water levels reached unprecedented levels. Part of Interstate 40 collapsed into the river gorge due to the force of the floodwaters.

A large Champion International (now Blue Ridge Paper Company) paper mill in Canton was the primary source of considerable dioxin and particulate matter pollution discharged into the Pigeon River. The pollution situation in the river became a minor issue in the campaign for the 1988 Presidential election. As Al Gore started his first run for the Presidency, Newsweek magazine reported that Gore was pressured by North Carolina Senator Terry Sanford and Congressman Jamie Clarke to ease up on his campaign against Champion's wastewater discharges into the Pigeon River. According to Newsweek, Gore complied with their request, writing to the EPA to oppose tighter water pollution control requirements ("Gore's Pollution Problem", Newsweek, 24 November 1997). This issue came up again during the 2000 Presidential election.

[edit] History

The confluence of the Pigeon River and Big Creek in Waterville. The power plant is in the background.

The Pigeon River dam was started in 1927 and was completed in 1930. The project was started by Carolina Power & Light and was completed by its affiliate Phoenix Electric Co.. The concrete dam is 180 ft high by 800 ft long. The brick power plant (visible from I-40 is actually 6.2 miles from the dam. A tunnel 6.2 miles long stretches from the dam to the power plant. [2]