Warmwater Stream Committee
Southern Division, American Fisheries Society
Roundtable Discussion Minutes - February 22, 2001
Jacksonville, Florida

Al Surmont (Kentucky Dept. of Fish & Wildlife) - Two major fish kills recently. Wild Turkey whiskey spill valued at $ 500,000, settled for $260,000. It took 2 days to cause an oxygen depletion.

Coal slurry spill in eastern Kentucky - Martin Co. - preliminary monetary estimate of $500,000, but estimate is low because fish did not float up. Some areas covered with 6 feet of sludge. 46.5 million spent on cleanup.

Henry Mealing - Kleinschmidt & Assoc. - working with Alabama Power on FERC relicensing.

Ed Scott, TVA - French Broad River Lake Sturgeon Restoration Pictures; large river survey in Duck River; will be working on the Lower Cahaba River in late June 2001; discussed sturgeon restoration efforts in NY & PA.

Christian Waters - North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission - shoreline stabilization study in 5 coastal rivers, comparing bulkhead with riprap; fish passage in the Cape Fear River, Corps dredging lower river near Wilmington, used blasting, as part of mitigation they will install boulders.

April Layer - Arkansas Game & Fish Commission - White River project has been resurrected; Tensas River navigation; Fish kills from Largemouth Bass Virus; Filipek doing big stream restoration projects.

Elise Irwin - USGS, Alabama Coop. Fish & Wildlife Research Unit - Corps permit for reservoir on Upper Tallapoosa River, USFWS asked for fish distributional data on Upper Tallapoosa River and Upper Coosa River. Aquatic GAP project may start on ACT, a pilot project since no standards exist.

R. L. Harris Dam on Tallapoosa River - flows range from 0 to 16,000 cfs with 2 generating units operating 5 days/wk. Alabama Dept. of Conservation and USFWS want to renegotiate license, using adaptive management techniques and support models, issue is starting to heat up, if power company doesn’t give these agencies some water, Alabama Dept. of Conservation will go to FERC.

Chris O’Bara - West Virginia Dept. of Natural Resources - Sturgeon and paddlefish restoration; installing deepwater structure to improve midwater section; Lock and Dam improvements; Ohio River restoration project authorized by Congress, 300 million if funded. Eastern WV- eel passage on two rivers.