Danville whitewater channel plans float forward

Future Olympian kayakers may one day practice their playboating in the Dan River while tourists marvel from shore.

In the Virginia budget approved in May, lawmakers included $3 million for the City of Danville to develop the White Mill Whitewater Channel, which is being designed to lure both recreational paddlers and water rescue trainees.

The creation of the whitewater channel is part of a public-private effort to revitalize the area surrounding White Mill, a former textiles operation and a reminder of Danville’s legacy as a textiles powerhouse.

In addition to an $88 million effort by the city’s industrial development authority and Wisconsin’s The Alexandria Co. to redevelop the mill as a multiuse project, the city is also building a four-acre riverfront park slated to open in early 2025, according to Bill Sgrinia, director of Danville Parks and Recreation.

To get the state money, Danville must raise $6 million in funding. City officials will likely hold off identifying fund sources until a design for the project is completed, according to Sgrinia. He estimates the project will end up costing between $18 million and $20 million.

In 2022, Danville officials hired North Carolina’s Site Collaborative, a landscape architecture firm, which subcontracted with former Olympic canoeist and engineer Scott Shipley, president of Colorado’s S20 Design, to design the whitewater channel. The project was funded through a $979,690 grant from the Danville Regional Foundation.

About 60% of the design process for the whitewater channel has been completed, according to Sgrinia. He thinks another major chunk will be finished by the first quarter of 2025 and estimates work to build the whitewater channel could begin in two or three years.

Right now, the plan is for the channel to incorporate an industrial canal that runs in front of the historic White Mill. “It’s a unique opportunity,” Shipley says, noting that using the existing canal will allow the channel to be entirely gravity-fed.

Being able to rely on natural water flow to create rapids will distinguish the park from other whitewater channels that rely on artificial pumps, which also increases operational costs.

Whitewater channels can be a tremendous economic boon for cities, generating tourism and helping cities brand them-selves as outdoor recreation meccas, Shipley says.

The attraction won’t just draw paddlers either, according to Sgrinia.

“People will just come because it’s really cool to see what people are doing on it,” he says.