Hydroelectricity or Recreation?

Bill, yesterday, asked why the hydroelectric plant on Belle Isle was abandoned. Here's Wikipedia's scoop on the matter as well as another excellent question to ponder:

"Silt in river water wore down turbine blades, bearings and bushings. Logs and debris damaged the entrance gates of the mill race and mud had to be cleaned up after floods. Power production varied with river flow and was always low in summer.

In the mid 1950’s the price of oil was so low that petroleum products became the fuel of choice (local gasoline was .25 a gallon). Had anyone foreseen the great increase in costs after the Arab Oil Embargo in 1967, this plant might have remained competitive. Question: would power production have been as valuable as the recreational benefits we now have from a free flowing river?"

Hydroelectric Plant

The remains of a now abandoned hydroelectric plant in Belle Isle.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, friends! Hope you had a restful night :-) and aren't too tired to make a new beginning. I'm starting this new year of photographs with this one taken last Friday along the James River's famed "fall line."  According to Wikipedia:

"The fall line marks the geologic boundary of hard metamorphosed terrain—the product of the Taconic orogeny—and the sandy, relatively flat alluvial plain of the upper continental shelf, formed of unconsolidated Cretaceous and Cenozoic sediments. Examples of Fall Zone features include the Potomac River's Little Falls and the rapids in Richmond, Virginia, where the James River falls across a series of rapids down to its own tidal estuary."