DUBLIN, Va. – Thousands of pounds of debris are clogging Claytor Lake from Helene, and since the storm, crews have been constantly cleaning up to get it back to where it once was.
“We’ve been operating in and around the area including the New River Valley for about two and a half weeks now,” said Major Ryan Hall, operations officer for the Amy Corps of Engineers. “For the most part over the past week, week and a half, what we’ve been doing is reconnaissance on top of the surface water. We’re going to have barges and tugboats coming in to do heavy lifting on the debris removal.”
With the amount of debris pulled out of the lake, I was curious how it has impacted our ecosystem.
I talked to Jeff Williams with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, and he said from what they have seen, it has not been bad, but it’s hard to tell long-term impacts.
“I did not get any reports of fish kills that occurred on the lake or other parts, rivers, and streams and things like that,” said Williams. “We didn’t see any immediate or direct impacts from that.”
He said the storm came in the best time of the year to have the smallest effect on fish populations.
“Had that occurred in the spring that would have had a more negative impact on the year classes of really all species,” said Williams. “They’ve adapted to be able to withstand those high flows, not to say it wont impact them to some degree.”
Williams said the plan now is to do more tests in the spring to get a better idea of the damage done.
Leaders with the Army Corps of Engineers said they are here to support in any way they can
They said now that the barges are here, they should start seeing significant progress in the cleanup.