The Dominion Post
May 27, 2000
By Evelyn Ryan
Local boaters who want the Opekiska and Hildebrand locks to be open in the evening during boating season have called a meeting at 7 p.m. June 6 at Westwood Middle School, River Road.
Recreational boaters and the public have been invited, said Donald Strimbeck of the Upper Monongahela Committee for Better Boating.
The Hildebrand and Opekiska locks and dams are on the Monongahela River between Morgantown and Fairmont. They operate from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. daily.
Tom Flynn will be at the meeting to discuss short-term changes. He is operations manager, Monongahela River, for Pittsburgh District, Army Corps of Engineers.
"He is willing to consider adjusting the shift hours for Hildebrand and Opekiska locks to 10 a.m.-6 p.m. or 11 a.m.-7 p.m. during the boating season," Strimbeck said, "if boaters felt this would improve their recreational boating."
In addition to showing support for longer lock hours on the upper Monongahela River, the meeting will discuss long-term solutions to recreation needs.
By law, the Corps of Engineers sets lock hours based on the amount of commercial traffic using the locks.
Commercial traffic is limited on the upper reaches of the Monongahela, where the Hildebrand and Opekiska locks are located.
The long-term solution, he said, involves Congress.
Committee members have written Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, D-W.Va., asking him "to sponsor legislation that would place recreational boating and river community development on a par with the Corps' current authorizations to facilitate river commerce, provide flood control and maintain river flow," Strimbeck said.
Mollohan said he shares the feelings of river users "who wish that the Corps would give greater consideration to recreational uses of our waterways.
"I am looking into the issues associated with accommodating greater recreational use of our waterways," Mollohan added. "My hope is that, without compromising its primary mission, the Corps can be sympathetic in considering these interests of our local c ommunity."
The river committee wants Mollohan to become more actively involved.
"This is a natural for congressmen on both sides of the aisle," Strimbeck noted. "It's not a Democratic or Republican issue, it's an issue for congressmen who represent river districts."
Wally Venable, a retired WVU professor, began the momentum that led to the committee, Strimbeck said. Venable started his research in 1997.
Venable said the Corps of Engineers is operating under policies developed in the early 1800s, focusing on commerce, when "even the canoes were commercial in those days."
The Corps' role with rivers didn't expand to flood control until the 1930s, after the Tygart Dam was built.
The Tygart Dam, Venable said, may be used for flood control today, but it was built to maintain the levels in the Monongahela River during summers.
Some recreation use was included, but "nobody ever went back and added recreation to the mandate," he said. "All we've got to do is get Congress to change that -- to add recreation to environment and commerce."
Boats from many areas travel up the Monongahla, he said. Some have come from as far away as Texas, others as close as Pittsburgh.
But these boaters find they cannot get to the headwaters of the Monongahela or Allegheny rivers without spending a lot of time waiting for lock access, he said.
"We're not concerned about Thanksgiving through the first of April," Venable noted, "but we do care about the boating season of June, July and August."