Roanoke River Water Flow Committee Report for 1991-1993

Abstract

A Committee of representatives from State and Federal agencies and State universities was formed in 1988 to gather information on natural resources of the lower Roanoke River watershed in North Carolina and to recommend a water flow regime that would be mutually beneficial to the resources and their users. A modified, ‘trial flow regime was judged acceptable by the US Army Corps of Engineers and Virginia Power Company. The Committee suggested that the flow regime be evaluated over a four-year period (1989-1992), and that a report be issued each year during the study period. The trial period was extended to include 1993 by the US Army Corps of Engineers at the request of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

The purpose of this Flow Report is to document hydrological events and reservoir operations for 1991-1993 in context with field research efforts and observations in the lower Roanoke River Basin on a number of watershed resources: fisheries (especially striped bass), wildlife, agriculture, and timber. This report differs from the three previous reports issued by the Flow Committee (Manooch and Rulifson 1989, Rulifson and Manooch 1990a, Rulifson and Manooch 1991) because it contains sections pertaining to abundance and habitat use of overwintering songbird and woodpecker communities, aquatic macroinvertebrate ecology and management relative to hydrology, public lands, heavy metal contaminants, Roanoke River time travel studies, relative abundance of finfish species other than striped bass, and susceptibility of larval fishes to entrainment by water withdrawal pipes. Following are summaries of the major sections contained herein. Each summary is presented as a separate paragraph.