Originally posted by Cecil Baird1:
No offense to your biologist but I think his concern with reproduction where you are at is not warranted.
What can I say? Here in Indiana you have to have a permit when anyone with a brain knows they won't make it through the winter.
Unfortunately, there is some merit to this. It was first brought up to me by the DNR biologist. We have a number of big power plants in the WV/VA/MD area that use rivers and lakes for cooling. [Edit: ... and the water temperatures in these areas stay well above 60 degrees even during the coldest winters.] We have two large lakes near us that were built just for that purpose (Lake Anna in Virginia, and Mt. Storm Lake right near me). The Potomac also has some very large power plants. The streams that form on my property make their way into the Potomac via the Cacapon River.
[2nd Edit: Because of the problems we've had with other exotics, like the snakeheads that are now wildly reproducing in the Potomac, the authorities are very concerned about "dumping" of non-native fish.]
This is from a Mt. Lake Storm website
Mt. Storm Lake, WV . Mt. Lake Storm is next to one of our best ski areas of the state.
The three massive generating units of the power station burn more than 15,000 tons of coal per day, but state-of-the-art scrubbers keep the air quality well within legal limits. To cool the system, lake water is pumped through the plant at a rate of 234,000 gallons per minute, fast enough to completely recycle the lake water in 2.5 days. When the water emerges into the lake from the three return pipes, its temperature is 100 F (38 C).
Winter at Mt. Storm belongs to tech divers. Hardy members of northern Virginia's technical diving community think little of winding up the mountain roads in single-digit temperatures to get in a couple of practice dives. There is, however, no ice diving here, the temperate 60-degree-F (16-degree-C) water allows bottom times of an hour or more with minimal danger of hypothermia for those properly equipped with adequate thermal protection (dry suits).
I haven't been up there this year, but a game warden says the striper fishing has been fantastic.
