While I don’t live in Colorado at the moment, I still return periodically to paddle its rivers and creeks, hike its trails, and climb its mountains.
I am an American Canoe Association (ACA)-certified swiftwater rescue instructor with 30 years of kayak, canoe and rafting experience – some of it in Colorado, including the Arkansas River. I’m writing to voice my deep concerns about the short-term and long-term impact of this project on the safety of those paddling the river.
In order to explains those concerns, I need to provide a little background on one of the hazards of moving water: entrapment.
Entrapment occurs when a person (in or out of their kayak, canoe or raft) is pinned in place by the force of the current. Entrapped victims are very difficult to rescue, doubly so if they’re entrapped underwater because the time available is so short.
Entrapments happen any number of ways: one unfortunately common method is “foot entrapment”, which is what happens when a person floating in the river attempts to stand up and instead lodges one or both feet in a rock crevice, or tree branch, or other underwater object. Moderate current is easily capable of dragging such an entrapped victim underwater, even if they’re wearing a professional-grade lifejacket.
Another common method is “boat entrapment,” which usually involves a canoeist or kayaker who has broached their boat in a horizontal or vertical position against a rock or other obstruction. Simple boat entrapments are still difficult to address due to the tremendous forces involved; complex boat entrapments, where the river bends or folds the boat around the still-entrapped paddler, are almost impossible.
Rescuing victims from either of these is difficult, even for trained, coordinated, experienced teams equipped with the right equipment and in the right place at the right time. A study of the relevant literature (case histories compiled by the American Whitewater Affiliation Safety Chair) indicates that almost all such successful rescues were such because of fortunate circumstances. These are thus the exception, not the rule.
River runners, both commercial and private, are aware of these risks, both in a general sense in a situation-specific sense. The general sense is addressed by paddler education, including the safety talks all commercial outfitters on every river give their clients – those talks always emphasize foot entrapment, and this message is often reinforced by repetition.
Kayakers and canoeist are trained to avoid being upstream of rocks in moving water. The situation-specific sense is addressed by guide and paddler knowledge of particularly hazardous rapids, rock formations, and other features: trips will often avoid these completely or even portage rapids because of the extreme hazard posed by certain locations. This approach (accident prevention) is pervasive because it has to be: as I indicated above, the odds of successful rescue are very low even under the best of circumstances.
The worst of these hazards are nearly always man-made: low-water bridges, leftover rebar from construction, wire fences, power cables, pipelines, and so on. They’re the worst for several reasons: first, because they’re new. Rivers will, over many millenia, erode away at least some of the hazards in strong current – but anything from the last century is far too new to be affected. Second, because they’re made to last – to resist environmental degradation including erosion.
Third, because they show up in unexpected places; that is, they lurk invisibly in locations where natural hazards are very unlikely.
Fourth, because they’re often jagged and irregular, capable of puncturing the hulls of canoe and kayaks as well as the tubes of inflatable craft.
If any piece of this proposed project ends up in the river, it may form an extremely dangerous hazard. Moreover, depending on how large the piece is and where it ends up, it may be extremely difficult to remove. (Attempts to remove other significant debris, such as a railroad car on the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, bridge girders on the Potomac River in Maryland, and rebar on the Shenandoah River in West Virgina, have all been unsuccessful. Just reaching the locations of these can be very difficult, and reaching them with mechanical equipment effectively impossible.)
Even worse, debris such as support cables or fabric may shift location as river currents move it, creating a serious mobile hazard that’s difficult to locate and thus difficult to avoid.
I’ve read the assurances of the proposers that this won’t happen, but frankly, I’m not convinced that they fully grasp the serious consequences of even a relatively small incident. Twenty feet of cable or a 10 foot by 15 inch piece of fabric may not seem like much in the context of the art project, but it’s a major threat to river runners.
My opinion is that the risk of creating a persistent, lethal river hazard is too high to allow this project to proceed.
Richard Kulawiec lives in Sparks, Maryland. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
