TVA Irresponsibility, Vigilantism and Poor Decision Making.

Hydrilla, milfoil, and native aquatic plants north of Hwy 35 in Scottsboro. This is Dry Creek which flows into the Roseberry Creek area.

Milfoil and hydrilla makes for a green carpet in the North Sauty Creek area at Goose Pond Colony. Monster bass hang out in the shoal areas in the spring, summer and fall months using the weed cover and the numerous channels through the cover to ambush their prey.

Hydrilla, the culprit and reason for concern of local citizens. Unfortunately the TVA fails to meet their stewardship responsibilities in controlling this invasive plant. Local Citizens in Scottsboro have formed a vigilante non-profit group to take matters into their own hands. They have also convinced the Scottsboro City Council to participate in their ill advised plans.
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What do you get when you combine TVA Irresponsibility, Vigilantism and Poor Decision Making? A Scottsboro City Council Decision which gives $42,500.00 of citizen tax payer money to an ill advised project where professional, scientific input was not acquired. But wait, there may be more money from other public entities to placate the influential vigilante citizens irresponsible actions.

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Last year the TVA announced that it was not going to continue its aquatic nuisance species weed control. A responsibility which the largest governmental socialistic electrical utility has by law. They announced they would control invasive aquatic nuisance species only in public access areas and navigation channels. This immediately aroused the local lake homeowners who in turn demanded action from the TVA and local political entities.

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Much debate ensued with the local Alabama Democrats meeting in several Committees as well as several meetings with the TVA massive buracracy. The results are very remarkable, zero, nothing, a lot of wasted energy-thus far. The TVA said we will get back with you by such and such date, "getting back" has never occured.

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Energy misdirected.

Up steps a group of lakeside homeowners who complain their boat docks and the waterways where they live are being inundated with aquatic weeds and are inaccessible. As lack luster as the TVA is you should never deceive and exaggerate facts to a bureaucracy such as the TVA.

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The lakeside homeowners formed a non-profit organization and named it Roseberry Creek Rescue Group. (Unfortunately the question now is who will rescue the poor citizen of Scottsboro from the lakeside home owners who have swindled $42,500 from the coffers of Scottsboro.) The group enlisted the services of a private contractor to kill the aquatic nuisance species blocking their boat docks. The same contractor the TVA has put out of work due to their cut back of controlling aquatic weeds. The contractor comes forward and states, I will resolve all of your problems, give me $170,000.

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The proposed contractor, the Roseberry Rescue Group nor the City of Scottsboro, in the several public meetings, has never requested nor allowed any input from any State Biologist or professional scientist of any biological, ecological, or environmental discipline that would serve as a disinterested party to effectively evaluate any plans professionally and scientifically brought forward by the group.

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Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law.

The jurisdiction of the Resource which we call the Tennessee River, Guntersville Lake and specifically Roseberry Creek falls under the domain of the Federal Government and the State of Alabama. The City of Scottsboro nor the Roseberry Rescue group have no authority to participate in the destruction, elimination or poisoning of any species of flora and fauna of the river or lake. If they go ahead with their venture they will effectively be a group of lawless ecological vigilantes. The responsible Federal and State Agencies are the TVA and the Alabama Department of Conservation. Here is the TVA's official policy on jurisdiction and responsibility of Aquatic Weed Control, http://www.tva.gov/rrsc/readingroom/aquaplantrec.htm. State of Alabama Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force information, http://www.outdooralabama.com/education/generalinfo/ans/plan/AlANSPlan200812.pdf and hydrilla info, http://www.anstaskforce.gov/spoc/hydrilla.php

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Summary

Roseberry Creek has an invasive species problem and responsible planned action must be taken to resolve the problem. The failure of TVA to meet their responsibilities concerning stewardship of the mighty Tennessee River does not justify poor decisions without professional, scientific input to plan and resolve the problem permanently.

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There are many factors involved ie, sewage and runoff pollution, exasperating an existing ecological problem by enabling an avenue of a more serious proliferation by organisms such as Lyngbya alga to become dominate in Roseberry Creek; the avenue and frequency of dispersion of chemicals in this wide area must also be taken into consideration, it may require a period of years to have the best control of nuisance aquatic weeds. Endangered species might be in the area such as mussels and darters in Dry Creek and Roseberry Creek. The widespread use of Flouridone in the Roseberry Creek area in all likely hood will create other problems such as that with Lyngbya alga which sometimes takes over when hydrilla is controlled. Creates toxins and clogs water systems, a very difficult to control alga. Blue green filamentous algae is present and proliferates when aquatic weed control measures have been applied to the shoreline of Roseberry Creek in past years.

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A professional, scientific, joint agency approach to controlling this problem is necessary with public input. A single group of citizens taking the law into their hands and convincing the local political municipal body that their scheme should be financed all the while discarding the principles of science to resolve a perplexing Biological and Ecological issue is unacceptable conduct by those participating in this scheme. That is my opinion on this issue as supported by all available scientific and legal material that I have gathered and listed in the linked documents, including just plain good and common sense of the responsible citizen.

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Extensive listings and research material from this blog involving the TVA and Aquatic Nuisance Species: http://arklite.blogspot.com/search/label/TVA%20Aquatic%20Weed%20Control

(end edit 3PM 03/27/2009)