The Ohio River Ecological Research Program…40 Years and Counting

The Ohio River Ecological Research Program (ORERP) began in the early 1970s as a collaboration by several utility companies and it has been conducting biological and water quality studies of the Ohio River annually ever since.  The ORERP is sponsored by various steam-electric utilities with power plants on the river, with the membership changing from year to year. During the past 25 years, the thermal assessment program has consisted of electrofishing, seining, and conducting WQ measurements seasonally at three locations upstream of each plant and three locations downstream of these plants.  The electrofishing program follows protocols established by ORSANCO (Ohio River Sanitation Commission). These studies showed that impingement was dominated by Shad (Gizzard Shad at most plants, Threadfin Shad in the lower river) and Freshwater Drum.  They also showed that there was a tremendous difference in impingement rates between years, mainly as a result of differing recruitment of Age 0 fish into the catch.  We are in the middle of a 2-year entrainment characterization study at seven plants.  These studies are to measure entrainment rates at each plant, describe the species composition of the eggs and larvae entrained, and provide information to address requirements of EPA’s 316b rule issued in 2014.