By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-956527.mp3
Dallas, TX – The first recreational "water feature" on the Trinity River in Dallas is set to open in May. KERA's BJ Austin says it's overdue, over-budget, and has some local kayakers overjoyed.
Dallas City Council members on the Trinity Corridor Committee got a sneak peak of the standing wave, and a demonstration from kayaker Matt Fritz.
Fritz: I think it's great. It's a big project and it turned out very, very well.
The standing wave is a "narrowing of the river channel to create two white water drops just south of downtown. The four million dollar price tag is about 300 thousand dollars more than originally projected. The "wave" was originally scheduled to open in the summer of 2009, then fall of 2010, now spring of 2011. Trinity Committee chairman Dave Neumann the city has faced repeated challenges as it seeks to transform its river bottom into a major attraction. Chief among them: a failing grade for the levee system from the Corps of Engineers which requires a multi-million dollar remediation.
Neumann: We as a city council and as a city are focused absolutely, number one, on flood protection. But I am confident we will get beyond the issue of the levees. We'll make sure that they will be recertified. And then we'll begin with the three lakes; the natural lake, the urban lake, the west Dallas lake.
Neumann says the mammoth Trinity Project is one step at a time. And, the opening of the Standing Wave is a major one. Kayaker David Morring says this is a big deal.
Morring: From a kayaker's standpoint, it's a God send. This is great. We would travel five-six hours one-way just to go to Arkansas to paddle, or go down below Austin. Now we have it in our backyard, so we're really excited. The whole paddling community is really jazzed about it.
But the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has a word of caution. The Trinity River in Dallas has long-been classified as unsuitable for recreation activities such as swimming, diving and water skiing because of elevated bacteria levels associated with animal waste and human sewage. The TCEQ says there are also so-called legacy pollutants in the sediment: PCB's arsenic and DDT. Dallas officials say the water quality is okay for kayaking - even with the "rollovers" that submerge the kayaker. Rebecca Rasor is the Trinity Project director.
Rasor: When we have these types of flows that are low to moderate flows that's when you have the best water quality of all. It's when you get your higher flows that the water quality decreases, but this wave goes away. It becomes submerged when you have the higher flows.
David Morring says he and his kayak buddies aren't worried.
Morring: I've now been in this six-seven times, flips, upside downing all the time and have had not issues or problems with it. I've actually been on other rivers and creeks rivers around Dallas and other places that are much worse than this.
The standing wave is completed. Crews are now working on the landscaping, the paved trail and the parking lot to officially open in May.