After 24 years of guiding whitewater trips on the Nolichucky River Gorge for other companies, Patrick Mannion finally received a permit last year to operate his own outfitter business.
A Jan. 21 letter from Hunter to the Corps suggests that CSX's plan to use material from the Nolichucky gorge as reconstruction material, rather than trucking it in from a quarry, will have “significant consequences for scenery, water quality, wildlife habitat, protected species, flood risk, recreation, and the navigability of the river.”.
Mannion said it is perplexing that he had to go through a long, arduous process to get a permit to run rafting trips on the Nolichucky from the Forest Service while he believes CSX has not been held to the same standard.
It’s wild and scenic It’s the steepest, the deepest and the most remote river corridor that’s commercially rafted in the southeastern United States," said Mannion, who calls the river “my therapy.”.
But with the spring season set to open next month, the biggest problem outfitters are facing is silence from the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the river corridor and issues their permits to operate.
