By Ryan Brandt

March 7, 2002 At the end of a winter that has left East Coast skiers high and dry, Appalachian river runners are hoping for a Spring deluge to break a drought that stymied paddling over the past few years.

The good news for paddlers is that the most extreme drought conditions this year have hugged the seaboard—away from most of the runnable rivers. But the drought has impacted the availability of whitewater in some areas. The spring release of the Tohickon River in eastern Pennsylvania was recently cancelled because of drought conditions in the Delaware River Basin.

Despite the fact that streamflow into the Chesapeake Bay was at its second lowest level for February since 1937, rafting outfitters from the Maine to Georgia remain optimistic about the upcoming season—and thankful for their dam-controlled rivers. Eric Martin of Wilderness Voyageurs in western Pennsylvania says river levels this year are higher compared to last year. "At this moment, it doesn't look that bad," he said. "I will become concerned if this continues over the next month or so."

Along Georgia's Ocoee and Chattooga Rivers, the water levels are better than in years past but still in danger of drought. "We're in moderate drought. If we get the same water we got last year, I wouldn't worry about anything for the dam-controlled rivers," said Bob Westbrook of Wildwater in South Carolina.

Two releases on Georgia's Tallulah River over the first and second weekends in April are expected to draw hundreds of eager paddlers.

"Basically, nothing without a dam is runnable on the East Coast," says Kevin Colburn, an eastern associate with American Whitewater.

Westbrook says a bad spring would not bode well, and that too many years of serious drought in succession is a cause for concern. "If we have a really dry year and follow that up with another really low water year, then the industry may have to reinvent itself [in the southeast]," he said.

For outfitters, one of the biggest concerns is the would-be river runner who hears about the drought on the news. "The tough thing for us is that the drought worsens as you move east and most of our clientele are from those areas," said Pennsylvania-based Whitewater Challengers owner Ken Powley. "They're seeing the drought on the news everyday so they assume it's equally bad out here and it really isn't. We're doing fine."