During the months May--November 1992, as part of the Western North Carolina Alliance upper Little Tennessee River watershed survey, streams in the North Carolina portion (Macon and Swain Counties) of the watershed were surveyed for the presence of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). The purposes of this survey were threefold: (1) To use this sensitive, pollution-intolerant species as an indicator organism for high quality waters. (2) To assist the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the US Forest Service, and private landowners in managing for and protecting this popular game fish. (3) To locate possible stocks of pure ``southern Appalachian strain`` brook trout. Research is currently underway at the University of Tennessee and Auburn University to determine whether there is in fact a distinct southem subspecies or race of S. fontinalis. This author is one of those who is inclined to believe there is.

The specialty fertilizer market is a subset of the fertilizer market. The specialty market is characterized by high-value crops, usually with a very limited time between planting and market and subject to price variations due to quality and market timing. Additional characteristics of this market include innovations in development of new products, use of new products, and new developments and modifications in use of older products. Issues affecting this market include concerns associated with excessive nutrient runoff from irrigation. This paper focuses on the scope (including definitions) of the specialty market and issues affecting the industry.

TVA initiated a Reservoir Monitoring Program in 1990 with two objectives -- to evaluate the health of the reservoir ecosystem and to examine how well each reservoir meets the swimmable and fishable goals of the Clean Water Act. In 1990 reservoir health was evaluated subjectively using a weight-of-evidence approach (a reservoir was deemed healthy if most of the physical, chemical, and biological monitoring components appeared healthy). In the second year (1991) a more objective, quantitative approach was developed using information on five important indicators of reservoir health -- dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, sediment quality, benthic macroinvertebrates, and fishes. The most recent information (1992) was evaluated with the same basic approach, modified to incorporate improvements based on comments from reviewers and additional data. Reservoirs were stratified into two groups for evaluation: run-of-the-river reservoirs and tributary storage reservoirs. Key locations are sampled in each reservoir (forebay, transition zone or midreservoir, inflow, and major embayments) for most or all of these five reservoir health indicators. For each indicator (or metric), scoring criteria have been developed that assign a score ranging from 1 to 5 representing poor to good conditions, respectively. Scores for the metrics at a location are summed and then the sums for …

The Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) is a method for evaluating the health of water bodies and watersheds by analyzing sample catches of fishes. Sites are scored on a numerical scale of 12--60 and on that basis assigned to a ``bioclass`` ranging from ``very poor`` to ``excellent.`` Overall, the major causes of depressed IBI scores in the Rabbit Creek watershed would appear to be: Organic pollution, mostly from livestock, but also from agricultural runoff and possible septic tank failures; sedimentation, principally from stream bank damage by cattle, also possibly from agriculture and construction; toxic pollution from agrochemicals applied to Holly Springs Golf course and agricultural fields` and Warming of water and evaporation loss due to elimination of shade on stream banks and construction of ponds.

Fish communities in two upper Little Tennessee River tributaries, Rabbit Creek and Middle Creek, both located in Macon County, North Carolina, were monitored using IBI methods in 1990 and again in 1992. A single site, each on the lower reaches of its respective creek, was chosen to reflect the influence of conditions throughout the watershed and to provide a measure of water quality exiting the watershed. The Rabbit Creek watershed (Holly Springs community) has a long history of settlement and agricultural use. Dominant land uses today are pasture in the bottom lands and residential development at higher elevations. Much of the upper portion of the Middle Creek watershed on the slopes of Scaly Mountain is devoted to cabbage farming, often on steep slopes and highly erodible soils. From the cabbage growing area, the creek drops 400 feet to the lower valley. Other common land uses include residential, livestock, and forest. Both streams are characterized by heavy sedimentation and frequent high turbidity. Both streams showed marked improvement between 1990 and 1992. In 1990, Rabbit Creek`s IBI score was 31.0, for a bioclass rating of ``poor.`` In 1992, the IBI score was 42.1 for a bioclass rating of ``fair.`` For Middle Creek, …

In January of 1992 a team was put together to begin the process of assessing the industrial waste needs of the Tennessee Valley. The team consisted of representatives from the various TVA Resource Group organizations. This initial team recommended as a starting point in the process a two-phase market research effort. A second team was then commissioned to conduct the first phase of this market research effort. The first phase of that marketing effort is now complete. This report contains an analysis of the data obtained through interviews of more than 168 individuals representing a similar number of organizations. A total of 37 TVA Resource Group employees were involved in the contact process from various organizations. In addition, the appendices provide summaries of the data used in designing the process and the reports of the Contact Coordinators (who were responsible for a series of visits). As a result of the data analysis, the Review Team makes the following recommendations: 1. Publish this report and distribute to the new management within TVA Resource Group as well as to all those participating as contacts, visitors, and contact coordinators. 2. The Resource Group management team, or management teams within each of the respective …

This report describes the environmental radiological monitoring program conducted by TVA in the vicinity of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFN) in 1992. The program includes the collection of samples from the environment and the determination of the concentrations of radioactive materials in the samples. Samples are taken from stations in the general area of the plant and from areas not influenced by plant operations. Station locations are selected after careful consideration of the weather patterns and projected radiation doses to the various areas around the plant. Material sampled includes air, water, milk, foods, vegetation, soil, fish, sediment, and direct radiation levels. Results from stations near the plant are compared with concentrations from control stations and with preoperational measurements to determine potential impacts of plant operations. Small amounts of Co-60 and Cs-134 were found in sediment samples downstream from the plant. This activity in stream sediment would result in no measurable increase over background in the dose to the general public.

What is cogeneration and how does it reduce costs? Cogeneration is the production of power -- and useful heat -- from the same fuel. In a typical biomass-fueled cogeneration plant, a steam turbine drives a generator, producing electricity. The plant uses steam from the turbine for heating, drying, or other uses. The benefits of cogeneration can mostly easily be seen through actual samples. For example, cogeneration fits well with the operation of sawmills. Sawmills can produce more steam from their waste wood than they need for drying lumber. Wood waste is a disposal problem unless the sawmill converts it to energy. The case studies in Section 8 illustrate some pluses and minuses of cogeneration. The electricity from the cogeneration plant can do more than meet the in-house requirements of the mill or manufacturing plant. PURPA -- the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 -- allows a cogenerator to sell power to a utility and make money on the excess power it produces. It requires the utility to buy the power at a fair price -- the utility`s {open_quotes}avoided cost.{close_quotes} This can help make operation of a cogeneration plant practical.

This report describes the preoperational environmental radiological monitoring program conducted by TVA in the vicinity of the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (WBN) in 1992. The program includes the collection of samples from the environment and the determination of the concentrations of radioactive materials in the samples. Samples are taken from stations in the general area of the plant and from areas that will not be influenced by plant operations. Material sampled includes air, water, milk, foods, vegetation, soil, fish, sediment, and direct radiation levels. During plant operations, results from stations near the plant will be compared with concentrations from control stations and with preoperational measurements to determine potential impacts to the public. Exposures calculated from environmental samples were contributed by naturally occurring radioactive materials, from materials commonly found in the environment as a result of atmospheric fallout, or from the operation of other nuclear facilities in the area. Since WBN has not operated, there has been no contribution of radioactivity from the plant to the environment.

Work carried out during 1992 under TVA grant No. TV-74216A, administered by the Western North Carolina Alliance, may be broken down into four categories: Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI), Macroinvertebrate Biomonitoring, Visual Reconnaissance, and Survey of Brook Trout. In 1992, we began to shift emphasis from merely studying the watershed to activities aimed at protecting, restoring, or improving water and habitat quality. The ``target`` area for this work in the upper Little Tennessee River watershed was the 10.0 square mile Rabbit Creek watershed (Holly Springs Community), and work conducted in Holly Springs is here reported separately from watershed-wide monitoring activities. Additional topics treated in this report include the relation of this project to other activities in the upper Little Tennessee watershed, significant changes in the watershed which occurred independently of this project, a list of other reports prepared to be made available through the project and a list of meetings. Work carried out under this grant in the Spring Creek and Laurel River watersheds (Madison County, North Carolina) will be reported on separately by Mark Hopey.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is required by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit for Sequoyah Nuclear Plant (SQN) to conduct and report annually a nonradiological operational monitoring program to evaluate potential effects of SQN on Chickamauga Reservoir. This monitoring program was initially designed to identify potential changes in water quality and biological communities in Chickamauga Reservoir resulting from operation of SQU. Chickamauga Reservoir cove rotenone sampling has also been conducted as part of the preoperational monitoring program for Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (WBN) to evaluate the combined effects of operating two nuclear facilities on one reservoir once WBU becomes operational. The purpose of this report is to present results of cove rotenone sampling conducted on Chickamauga Reservoir in 1992.

This report is a compendium of tables on consumption of commercial fertilizers in the USA in 1993, including types of different fertilizers and consumption of each.

One of the Tennessee Valley Authority`s (TVA`s) major goals is cleanup and protection of the waters of the Tennessee River system. Although great strides have been made, point source and nonpoint source pollution still affect the surface water and groundwater quality in the Tennessee Valley and nationally. Causes of this pollution are poorly operating wastewater treatment systems or the lack of them. Practical solutions are needed, and there is great interest and desire to abate water pollution with effective, simple, reliable and affordable wastewater treatment processes. In recognition of this need, TVA began demonstration of the constructed wetlands technology in 1986 as an alternative to conventional, mechanical processes, especially for small communities. Constructed wetlands can be downsized from municipal systems to small systems, such as for schools, camps and even individual homes.

Convective circulation patterns were examined in the Minky Creek embayment of Guntersville Reservoir, Alabama, during Mid-august to mid-October 1990 and mid-May through mid-November 1991. This report describes the results obtained during 1991. Day time heating produced a warm surface layer at all stations, while the layer was often eliminated during nighttime cooling. For much of the study period, vertical temperature stratifications was minimal except during periods of heating or cooling. During differential heating, shallow regions were aften heated to the bottom while warming was confined to surface layers at deeper locations. During differential cooling water moved from shallow regions as an underflow of cool water and was replace by a return current of warmer surface waters from deeper regions. Wind influence the temperature gradients. These results support the contention that convective circulation can potentially be very important in reservoir embayments.

The TVA Kingston Fossil Power Plant has nine units and is located near Kingston, Tennessee. Units 1 through 4 have a rating of 148 MW and units 5 through 9 have a rating of 197 MW. Each unit has two induced draft fans manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Corp., Sturtevant Division. A table showing design data for the induced draft fans is located on page 16 of this report. The fan blade design details for units 5 through 9 are shown on pages 11 through 14. There is a mechanical fly ash collector and a small electrostatic precipitator preceding the induced draft fans in the boiler flue gas stream and a large, efficient electrostatic precipitator downstream of these fans. The steam generators and pulverizers were supplied by Combustion Engineering. The average temperature of the flue gas is about 340 degrees Fahrenheit for units 5 through 9. All induced draft fans in the boiler flue gas stream experience erosion from fly ash. When the precipitators and fly ash collectors were new the fan blades would last about three years before they were eroded severely and had to be replaced. Kingston Plant personnel say the fly ash collectors are presently in need of …