Monday, January 25, 2010

Three things

A couple of news items that may be of interest:

Construction on the hydroelectric plant at the Smithland Locks and Dam could begin this spring or summer.

Groups are farm runoff along tributaries of the Ohio River to see how it is polluting the Ohio and contributing to the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. That reminds me of how I rode a research vessel in the summer of 2004 from Portsmouth, Ohio, to Huntington, W.Va., on which faculty from four or five universities studied the river environment. One researcher and I discussed how the river chemistry changed at the mouths of various tributaries. For example, the Scioto River drains into the Ohio at Portsmouth, and it carries a heavy load from the farm country it drains.

For something completely different, I'll note the river in the Huntington area was very foggy yesterday afternoon. Too bad the river was also running several feet above normal, preventing me from getting the pictures I wanted to put up here. Oh well.