High Water on the James

By Dave Sligh

Last Thursday, the James was flowing high and full. The photo above shows the area that usually serves as the parking lot for the Scottsville boat ramp. I saw large logs and pieces of wood continually streaming by, out in the middle of the stream. I also visited sites downstream as far as New Canton, and the River was also lapping up into and over boat ramps and parking lots at other sites.







Some data on this high flow event:

Peak flow at Scottsville:
43,000 cubic feet per second (cfs)

which equals 28 billion gallons per day.

Median flow for this time of year:
2,000 cfs

which equals about 1.3 billion gallons per day


The stream flows in the James River climbed from 7,670 cfs at 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 8th to 43,900 cfs at 6:30 p.m. on the 10th.
An increase of over 570% in 44 hours.

By contrast, the Rivanna River at Palmyra rose from 1,060 cfs to a peak flow of 17,500 cfs in a much shorter time.
An increase of 16,500% in only 26 hours.

This steeper rate of increasing flows in the Rivanna is likely due, at least in part, to a higher percentage of developed and impervious surfaces in this watershed than in the James River watershed above Scottsville.