In 2005, in Cedar Bluff, Virginia, the Service, the local community, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) cooperated to release over 120,000 freshwater mussels into the Clinch River. The releases are the culmination of years of work at Virginia Tech and at a VDGIF hatchery perfecting mussel-rearing techniques and growing these native mussels. The goal is to re-establish populations in a section of the Clinch River heavily impacted by a chemical spill in 1998. Additional releases are planned over the next decade. Monitoring is ongoing to assure the newly released mussels are surviving in their habitat.
On August 27, 1998, a tanker truck overturned on U.S. Route 460 in Tazewell County, Virginia. The truck released approximately 1,350 gallons of Octocure 554-revised, a rubber accelerant, into an unnamed tributary about 530 feet upstream from the Clinch River. The spill turned the river a snowy white color and killed most aquatic life for about seven miles downstream, including over 18,000 freshwater mussels of 16 species. Three of the mussel species impacted by the spill (tan riffleshell, purple bean, rough rabbitsfoot) are Federally-listed Endangered species. In addition, the spill destroyed one of the only two known remaining populations of the tan riffleshell mussel.
The Service's Environmental Contaminants program conducted a natural resource damage assessment and developed restoration options for the river system. After years of negotiation with the responsible party (Certus, Inc.), a court settlement was reached on April 7, 2003. The settlement provided $3.8 million to be managed by DOI for use by Federal and State Trustees to perform native freshwater mussel restoration within the Clinch River watershed.
With significant community input, the Service and the Commonwealth of Virginia published the "Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment for the Certus Chemical Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment" in July 2004. Under the plan, the trustees will: (1) restore the mussel community within the spill zone; (2) protect and restore mussel habitat; and (3) conduct community educational outreach on stewardship of endangered mussels. All three activities are ongoing, with many local, State, Federal, and academic partners.
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