This time of year is when many of the anadromous species of fish ascend the might Susquehanna River to spawn. These include American shad, hickory shad, blueback herring, branch herring, sturgeon and a few other lesser known species. The most abundant are current the shad and herrings, which until this past Saturday evening were really stacked up in the river just below Conowingo Dam. By Sunday morning, thousands of them were found floating down the river- DEAD!
I called the Maryland Department of Environment to report the kill and got nothing but answering machines. This morning I called the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, ended getting through to the Natural Resources Police, and they said it had been reported and they were "doing a flyover." Yep, they are going to fly over the now disbursed rafts of dead shad and herring, make a WAG (Wild Assed Guess) as to the amount of dead fish involved, then they'll put out a report to the news casters saying that the fish died of anoxia. NO $HIT Charlie Brown! Why else do you think they died?
Those of us that have been involved in investigating the many fish kills on the lower Susquehanna River for the past 6 decades are fairly confident why they died. The power company that operates Conowingo Dam shut the water off so they could conserve water to make more money during peak power demand times is the likely culprit, but without having access to the operating schedule records, this is very difficult to prove unless someone actually was there to witness the event. This is not the first time this has happened, and probably will not be the last. Kills involving more than 1-million fish have taken place in the past, particularly during the mid 1970s. This one involved several thousand fish, most of which are now washed into the shores of the river and floating in rafts over the Susquehanna Flats. They will soon be consumed by various scavengers, but until then the stench is horrendous and will be for weeks to come.
Under regulations set forth by FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) the dam is required to provide minimal flows of 5,500 cubic feet of water flow per second throughout the year to prevent this from happening. Sometimes, just sometimes, they have a tendency to try to circumvent the regulation and hope they don't get caught and fined. The fine, however, is a token amount and not at all a deterrent.
Gary :cut_out_animated_em
I called the Maryland Department of Environment to report the kill and got nothing but answering machines. This morning I called the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, ended getting through to the Natural Resources Police, and they said it had been reported and they were "doing a flyover." Yep, they are going to fly over the now disbursed rafts of dead shad and herring, make a WAG (Wild Assed Guess) as to the amount of dead fish involved, then they'll put out a report to the news casters saying that the fish died of anoxia. NO $HIT Charlie Brown! Why else do you think they died?
Those of us that have been involved in investigating the many fish kills on the lower Susquehanna River for the past 6 decades are fairly confident why they died. The power company that operates Conowingo Dam shut the water off so they could conserve water to make more money during peak power demand times is the likely culprit, but without having access to the operating schedule records, this is very difficult to prove unless someone actually was there to witness the event. This is not the first time this has happened, and probably will not be the last. Kills involving more than 1-million fish have taken place in the past, particularly during the mid 1970s. This one involved several thousand fish, most of which are now washed into the shores of the river and floating in rafts over the Susquehanna Flats. They will soon be consumed by various scavengers, but until then the stench is horrendous and will be for weeks to come.
Under regulations set forth by FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) the dam is required to provide minimal flows of 5,500 cubic feet of water flow per second throughout the year to prevent this from happening. Sometimes, just sometimes, they have a tendency to try to circumvent the regulation and hope they don't get caught and fined. The fine, however, is a token amount and not at all a deterrent.
Gary :cut_out_animated_em