Environment

Waterfowl hunters of the West Sandy Wildlife Management Area near Springville, Tennessee will have to hunt somewhere else for the next few seasons. The Tennessee Valley Authority has flooded the land since the 1970's to allow for waterfowl hunting, but spokesman Bill Sitton says they’re leaving the area dry during this upcoming fall to repair the pump house for the bottoms. He says,

Construction on the Olmsted Lock and Dam Project in Southern Illinois has been ongoing for 20 years, 13 years over schedule. Now a completion date is set for 2026. The final cost of the project will be almost 4 times the initial estimate. Shelly Baskin spoke with Project Engineer Richard Schipp on the problems plaguing the project and what lies ahead for the site.

For the first time since 2005, the Kentucky Watershed Watch Program is changing the tests it conducts on rivers, lakes and streams.  Throughout the year, the program’s 12 hundred volunteers take samples, giving the state a better feel for the quality of its surface water.  Joanna Palmer with the Watershed Watch Office says they’re now teaching new methods to volunteers...

“If they are following the protocols, the sampling protocols that we use here in the division of water..it will give us a better idea of what is happening in the stream,”  said Palmer.

Construction on the Olmsted Lock and Dam Project in Southern Illinois has been ongoing for 20 years, 13 years over schedule. Now a completion date is set for 2026.  Some of the delays are from construction techniques not quite suited for the swift current in that part of the Ohio River.  Project Engineer Richard Schipp says other delays are man-made…

FLW's Scott Ellison says high winds put a crimp in everybody's fishing but conditions are improving.

Scott Ellison here, with the FLW Weekly Fishing Report. You’ll have to pardon me if there are a lot of gaps in this week’s report, because the high winds that we had beginning Sunday put a crimp in everybody’s fishing. It’s supposed to be relatively calm for the next several days, however, so that should let the fishermen catch up on what they’ve been missing.