Blair County’s director of public works didn’t offer hope Monday that authorities would grant permission for the rescue of carp and other fish stranded behind the dam at Lakemont, although he acknowledged the unhappiness of area residents about the situation.
“Nobody just wants to kill stuff,” said Rocky Greenland, the county’s point person on an Intergovernmental Stormwater Committee project to remove silt on the lake bottom to rejuvenate it as a sediment trap. “I would love to be able to save (the fish).”
But the county’s Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission permit doesn’t allow for fish to be transferred downstream to public waters, while a commission biologist would prefer the fish not be taken to private ponds — or even safeguarded in the lakebed with a cofferdam, then released after project completion, according to Greenland.
“I’m upset, but it is what it is,” said Mark Conrad, a leader of the group that wants to save the fish, which have been seen swarming in shallows after a partial drawdown. “It is out of our hands.”
“We’ve got to do what we’re told,” Greenland said. “We follow the letter of the law.”
One of the commission’s concerns with allowing a transfer to private ponds is the potential for participants to hijack the process and place them in public waters, according to Greenland.Thus, such an operation would need to be “tracked,” he said.
“It’s way above my pay grade,” Greenland said, when asked about the potential for the necessary oversight.
The carp are invasive, and the fish in the lake — which also include catfish, bass, sunfish, bluegills and crappies — have been living in shallow, muddy water for years, creating a heightened risk of their carrying pathogens, he said, citing the biologist.
The lake had become so shallow in recent times that it became hard to ride paddle boats through much of it, Greenland said.
Because the silt rose so high, muddy water has routinely flowed downstream during rains.
The carp kept the mud stirred up, which contributed to that problem, he said.
After dredging, the lake will be 8 or 10 feet deep, he said.
Then the water downstream will be clearer, which will benefit higher “quality” fish, pleasing sportsmen, Greenland said.
Members of the group that want to rescue the fish don’t accept the designation by at least one local sportsman, who called the carp “trash” and “worthless.”
“They’re God’s creatures,” Jackie Russo said a little more than a week ago.
“I get it,” said Greenland of the widespread dismay.
When he was a kid, he fed popcorn to the fish at Lakemont, he said.
“(But) hard decisions have to be made,” he said.
Fishing operations in the ocean result in them being loaded onto boats, then dying, Greenland pointed out.
Greenland expects that turtles that live at the lake will be able to survive, given that he has partially drained the lake to expose edges that had been underwater, hoping to encourage turtles that had burrowed in to go elsewhere.
Conrad has doubts about the efficacy of that strategy, as the turtles would most likely just go down to the new lake level and burrow in, he said.
The county is trying to do what’s required by the permit, Greenland said.
“That’s their legal right,” Conrad said of the county’s plans. “(But) it’s inhumane to let (the fish) suffocate.”
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
The Link LonkNovember 10, 2020 at 12:10PM
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