The Tennessee Valley Authority is proposing to build 10 barriers to help limit the spread of four invasive species of Asian carp at Chickamauga, Watts Bar, Nickajack, Kentucky, Pickwick, Wilson, Wheeler, Guntersville and Fort Loudoun dams, and the federal utility is seeking public input on ideas for controlling the fish.
A draft report was released by TVA this month to evaluate installation of deterrent systems at selected lock and dam sites along the Tennessee and Clinch rivers. The plan involves assessing the potential environmental and economic effects of Asian carp expansion and control, according to an agency news release issued July 7.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Alabama Division of Natural Resources, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife and Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks are serving as cooperating agencies on the draft document, according to TVA.
The draft is available for public review and comment through Aug. 5, and a public hearing on the proposal is being held online at 6 p.m. Thursday.
The carp problem is the target of $25 million in funding in the Water Resources Development Act of 2020, criticized by then-President Donald Trump as “wasteful” spending but cheered by the state’s newly formed Carp Advisory Commission as its members studied Asian carp remedies. At the time, commission chairperson Rep. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said Trump’s criticism probably was “directed at the dysfunctional process in D.C. more than the specific funding of the fight against Asian carp.”