Gauge Description:

  The gauge is located in Tennessee about 1/2 mile  below Walter's power plant. The release schedules are as follows:  

*Memorial Day - Labor Day *Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday 12:00pm - 6:00pm

Walter's Power Plant also releases during the winter and spring occasionally. I've found a lot of these "off-season" releases to be towards the end of the day. The number for Pigeon information is 1*800*899*4435

Minimum runnable flow for hard boats (kayaks, C-1's, etc) is about 300 cfs. You'd probably want 600 to take a raft down. Each of the 3 turbines from the power station puts out slightly over 600 cfs at full flow. The scheduled releases are almost always 2 turbines plus the flow from Big Creek and the creeks in the "Drys" between the dam and the power station. Thus you normally see around 1300-1400 cfs on release days. If you are trying to figure out how likely power generation (and thus boatable flows) will be on a given day look at a lake level and likely power needs. The lake level can be obtained here http://www.progress-energy.com/aboutenergy/powerplants/hydro/graphs.asp The top of the reservoir is 2258 ft. It seems to rarely go below 2230. If the reservoir is above 2250 Progress Energy has plenty of water. The second half of the equation is electrical demand; if it is a 90+ degree day in the middle of the summer everyone will have their air conditioners on from late morning to late afternoon. Electrical demand is highest midweek during normal work hours, fairly high on Saturday and lowest on Sunday. You can also go to the USGS streamflow page and look at what the recent pattern has been. With these tools you can usually guess with around 80-90% accuracy whether or not there will be generation... and even how many units.