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Partners
include the U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM), TVA, Tennessee Division of
Water Pollution Control and its Land Reclamation section, Tennessee
Department of Agriculture, NCCC, and others. The goal of the project is to
elevate pH and reduce dissolved metals to improve the water quality to a
level that will support restoration of a warm water fishery, and possibly
provide an opportunity to reestablish a state endangered fish, the Ohio
River Muskellunge. OSM hopes to use the project as a national model for its
Appalachian Clean Streams Initiative.
Click here for directions to the Pocket
Wilderness.
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Protection of the pristine
wilderness areas within and adjoining the North Chickamauga Creek Gorge is
possibly the most urgent land conservation need in the Hamilton County area. Bowater has made a
substantial contribution to the effort by establishing the North
Chickamauga Pocket Wilderness.
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Significant
sources of acid mine drainage, originating from historic underground and
surface coal mines and impacting the headwaters and upper 18 miles of the
creek have been identified. A multi-year project to design and install
passive treatment systems, such as anoxic limestone drains and constructed
wetlands, is underway.
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