The challenges of developing habitat suitability criteria for a large Southeastern River

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:219930

Boltz, J; Leonard, P ^[1]; Bell, C ^[2]

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1. EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Hunt Valley, MD (United States)
2. Georgia Power Company, Atlanta, GA (United States)

As part of the relicensing process of the Sinclair Hydroelectric Project, Georgia Power Company (GPC) conducted an instream flow study to evaluate fish habitat under alternative flow releases. The Sinclair Project is located on the Oconee River in Milledgeville, Georgia. The study area for the instream flow study covered approximately 117 km of the Oconee River. The study area includes a relatively small section of the Piedmont Plateau and a large section of the Coastal Plain. Because the Oconee River has a diverse fish fauna with more than 50 species collected from the study area, the selection of species to be included in the instream flow study was an important and complex task. Few studies aimed at developing habitat suitability criteria have been conducted on southeastern stream fishes, especially in large alluvial rivers such as the Oconee River. The diversity of fish species, the lack of existing habitat suitability criteria for the vast majority of those species, and the logistical difficulties in working with regulated flows, made the development of the habitat suitability criteria complex. These factors mandated the need for an approach to developing habitat suitability criteria (HSC) that allowed the flexibility to utilize both site-specific data and data available in the literature.

• OSTI ID: 219930
• Report Number(s): CONF-9507190--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

13 HYDRO ENERGY
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
FISHES
FLOW RATE
GEORGIA
HABITAT
HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS
RIVERS