The Dickerson Whitewater Course (DWC), on the Potomac River near Dickerson, Maryland, was built for use by whitewater paddlers training for the 1992 Olympic Games in Spain.  It was the first pump-powered artificial whitewater course built in North America, and is still the only artificial whitewater course with heated water.  It remains an active training center and race location for whitewater slalom racing.

The DWC is owned by the Mirant power company. Except during special events, access requires membership in the BCE.  The course was constructed in 1991, inside a pre-existing straight, 900-foot-long concrete channel, 40 feet (12 m) wide.

Since 1959, the channel has returned cooling water from the Dickerson Generating Station to the Potomac River, 41 miles (66 km) upstream from Washington, D.C. Water is pumped from the river, warmed as much as 35 °F (20 °C) as it cools the power plant’s three coal-fired generators, and then emptied into the channel for gravity flow back to the river. (The plant has three other generators which use a different cooling system.)

Streamflow through the course is 200 to 600 cfs, or cubic feet per second (5.7 to 17.0 m3/s cubic meters per second), depending on the operation of the plant’s three coal-fired generators and their six cooling water pumps.

In the summer months, when water temperature in the channel exceeds 105 °F (38 °C), the DWC is closed for health reasons.

The DWC is closed when the Potomac River rises above 5 feet (1.5 m) on the Little Falls gage (20,000 cfs), flooding the lower section of the course.

Video of the Dickerson Whitewater Course at NORMAL Flow

Video of the Dickerson Whitewater Course at HIGH Flow