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http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/tennessee/2016/11/15/mussels-dying-clinch-river-tennesseecould-mean-drinking-water-issues/93876524/I would like this added to the record on TN0081566/ I can't
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Mussels dying on Clinch River could mean drinking water issues
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Mussels dying on Clinch River could mean drinking water
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Steve Ahillen , [email protected]
2:34 p.m. EST November 15, 2016
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Mussel biologist Steve Ahlstedt discusses a mussel kill on the Clinch River Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, in
Kyles Ford, Tenn. Ahlstedt said well over a 1,000 dead mussels have been found, particularly of the
pheasantshell variety. Paul Efrd
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KYLES FORD, TN – The mussels of the upper
v
Clinch River are dying, but why should you care?
Pastor Rodney Arnold talks
about changing beer rules for
churches
Steve Ahlstedt, in his waders, bent forward and
(Photo: Paul Efrd)
looked for dead Pheasantshell mussels on a recent
blue-sky afternoon. They weren’t hard to fnd. He had
a half-dozen in less than fve minutes.
Mussels dying on Clinch River could mean drinking water issues.htm[11/21/2016 1:59:21 PM]
1:32
v
1:37
Helicopter gets water to fght
Mussels dying on Clinch River could mean drinking water issues
Walland wildfres
“Mussels are indicator species,” he said as he searched. He was looking in a beautiful
stretch of the river in Hancock County about six miles south of the Virginia state line.
1:27
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“Clean water is essential for their survival and they are often referred to as the canary in
the coal mine. This river supplies our drinking water all the way down.”
Ahlstedt worked a long time as a scientist frst with the Tennessee Valley Authority and
\u0022A Man and his
Bike\u0022 Exhibit for Earl
Terrell at the ETHC
then the United States Geological Survey before retiring. He has studied mussels for 42
years.
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When mussels die it indicates “there is a problem,” he said, which signals trouble with
the water we drink.
Well over 1,000 Pheasantshell mussels have died in the Clinch since July, Ahlstedt
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water restrictions
estimated. When healthy, they nearly bury themselves in the bottom of the Clinch,
Nov. 21, 2016, 2:12 p.m.
blend in with the millions of small rocks and are nearly invisible. When dead they simply
lie on the bottom, shell opened up, white shell underside nearly glowing. Then they
aren’t hard to fnd at all.
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The shells of dead pheasantshell mussels are collected on the bank of the Clinch River Friday, Nov.
11, 2016, in Kyles Ford, Tenn. A dozen or so mussels where sent off to a USGS lab in Madison, Wis.,
for analysis. Mussel biologist Steve Ahlstedt said tests on the mussels themselves showed nothing.
He is awaiting results on sediment tests. (Photo: Paul Efrd)
Mussels dying on Clinch River could mean drinking water issues.htm[11/21/2016 1:59:21 PM]
Mussels dying on Clinch River could mean drinking water issues
He said he frst noticed the die-off during a visit here in September to take out mussels
in an attempt to restart various mussel species in other East Tennessee rivers. He was
noticing some mussels were open a crack.
“When it dies, the tissue muscles that hold the shell closed eventually lose their
strength and the mussel gapes open,” he explained. When the shells are open even a
crack, it’s dinner time for muskrats. They love mussels but don’t have much luck
opening the shells of the bigger ones.
Ahlstedt and his friend, Charlie Saylor, a long-time TVA scientist now retired, have been
fnding shells partially opened with the meat either hanging out and rotten or gone
altogether courtesy of muskrats.
“We don’t know what caused the die-off on the Clinch,” he said. “It has been suggested
that it is related to the drought and high water temperature, spraying of trees along
power-line corridors, contaminated sediments concentrated during low fow, or illegal
dumping off bridges in isolated portions of the river,” he said.
Mussel biologist Steve Ahlstedt shows dead pheasantshell mussels that he collected from the Clinch
River Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, in Kyles Ford, Tenn. When mussels die it indicates "there is a problem,"
he said, a problem that signals trouble with the water we drink.
(Photo: Paul Efrd)
Mussels dying on Clinch River could mean drinking water issues.htm[11/21/2016 1:59:21 PM]
Mussels dying on Clinch River could mean drinking water issues
A dozen or so mussels were sent off to a USGS lab in Madison, Wis., for analysis.
Ahlstedt said tests on the mussels themselves showed nothing. He is awaiting results
on sediment tests.
“Unfortunately, dead and dying mussels in the Clinch can’t tell us what is killing them,”
he said. “That’s the answer to the $64,000 question. If we have a good rain, the river
gets up and the evidence gets washed away."
The Pheasantshell, like many mussels, exists only in the Tennessee and Cumberland
rivers’ tributaries.
Ahlstedt said many species of mussels living in the upper Clinch can be found nowhere
else and some are on the endangered species list.
He loves this river and suggest the problem with oversight is not that there are no
federal or state agencies assigned but that the responsibility and dedication to keeping
the Clinch clean is being lost in the shuffe.
He listed a host of agencies that have had some part in watching over the Clinch, but
he believes the job isn’t being done correctly.
“We don’t have people out on the river 24-7 and usually problems are detected only by
accidental visits to the river like ours in late September,” he said. He suggested
installing some monitoring equipment at points along the river or paying people to keep
a close eye on things.
“Monitoring of the freshwater mussel populations in the river (to an extent) has been
ongoing for the last 30 years,” he said. “Finding the funding and help with this task has
always been a problem.”
The upper Clinch is a free-fowing river and among the most bio-diverse in North
America.
“This is our Amazon River. This is our Great Barrier Reef,” said Ahlstedt, shouting to be
heard over the fowing water.
“We must ensure the safety of this river,” he said. “It boils down to just having clean
drinking water.”
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