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Sportfishing group not sold on DEC turbidity report

Redoubt Reporter

 

The draft report last month highlighting turbidity problems in the Kenai river has left most affected groups and organizations trying to figure out what to do next.

 

The state Department of Environmental Conservation doesn’t have a choice but to eventually submit a full report to the Environmental Protection Agency with an updated list of impaired water bodies across the state.

 

For sportfishermen who would likely be affected by any changes meant to clear the water, the stakes are pretty high.

“Potentially these could be, depending on what people see as necessary changes, could have dramatic impacts on the ability for people to prosecute the king salmon fishery on the lower Kenai river," said Ricky Gease, executive director for the Kenai River Sportfishing Association.

 

The 7.5 mile stretch of river above the Warren Ames Bridge is one of the most popular areas for sportfishing by boat. Some 300 guides have, altogether, millions invested in boats and gear to send visitors home with a prized catch. But in the draft report, DEC singled out heavy traffic in July as one of the main culprits for stirring up sediment and other particles in excess of defined standards. But Gease and many others contend the Kenai river is too complex a system for such an easy answer like simply restricting boat traffic one month a year in a certain area. And the data ignore natural factors, like tidal influence.

 

“It’s correlated with high water volumes in a tidal area in a month where, typically, fishing for king salmon is occuring in that region. So we’ll see what happens moving on, but just the applicability of the standards themselves in this zone is open to question.”

Studies about turbidity on the Kenai river are nothing new. And the EPA has, in the past, given the state some extra time to find solutions before officially changing its listing. But that time is about up. There are a few ways to present a case to keep a body of water off the impaired list when it would otherwise be included.

 

Gease says one avenue that could make sense would be to use different water quality standards for that section of river. That would avoid exceeding turbidity standards and potentially keep the river off the big list of impaired water bodies.

 

“Hopefully DEC will look at maybe moving the marine recreational standards up into the tidal zone area. I think that would resolve the issue. It’s a very dynamic, complex system. You can study it to death, but the data is still going to show, in the tidal area, you have these natural changes in turbidity based upon where you are from the shoreline.”

DEC is taking public comments on the draft report until January 29th.