but the OWNERS of the dam don't give two shits about someone who wants to run the Cheoah at 1000 cfs 7am to 3pm as many days as possible a year.

I agree water is a public resource, but there are many out there who prefer it at 3000, and it seems kinda trite to complain that they don't do it EXACTLY the way YOU want them to do it.

At least AW got releases, at least one of those is next weekend, at least when the generators are broken they don't run it only at night at high flows.

Just seems a bit whiny to me, considering that streambed has been dry 90% of my lifetime, and that as of late, it has run like 90 days straight.  Be happy with what you got.  You can preach idealism all you want, but it aint gonna change anything.

Also, it didn't seem to me you actually understood why they were spilling, maybe you still don't.  Just thought more info would help out.  They just don't throw away thousands of dollars worth of power production because the lake is full.  If that was all it took, then the Nanty Cascades, Pigeon Dries, Green Dries, etc. would run all the time.