Just for further clarification here is the response from DUKE to my letter asking why Lake Summit and other are off limits. It was for the most part a letter that said go to the website which tells little. If you are a 30 year old environmentlist its probably nice to be able to hike to the BAD CREEK project up one of their trails but they have excluded the elderly and disabled. I wonder what the terms of the lease are? Are there terms of the lease that are being broken? What is the justifications they use to maintain that dam on a public river? Its going to be interesting to see what they use to justify damning the river and the LEASE terms.
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Duke leases Lake Summit to the Lake Summit Homeowner’s Association who control lake construction activities and access via the boat ramp. Duke does not manage Lake Lure and likely other lakes alluded to in the note but not specifically named.
Public access is a requirement for the licenses to operate the hydroelectric facilities on the lakes that comprise the Catawba-Wateree Project (i.e., lake James to Wateree) and the Keowee-Toxaway Project (i.e., lakes Keowee and Jocassee). Bad Creek reservoir is not open to the public because of safety concerns (significant lake level fluctuations) regarding operation of the pump storage project. Duke, however, does maintain 44 miles of the Foothills Trail around the northern portion of Lake Jocassee as public access for the lack of access to Bad Creek. Duke maintains over 150 public access locations along the reservoirs and river sections between reservoirs in the Piedmont of both Carolinas and in western NC and SC.
Additional lake information regarding Duke hydroelectric facilities is available via the website:
http://www.duke-energy.com/lakes/defaul ... ec=sidebar
Best regards,
Web Support Team