ABSTRACT
While the ORERP was designed to gather information on the potential impacts of power plant operation on Ohio River biota, it did not require the collection of specific information on fecundity, recruitment, survival, or age and growth for individual Ohio River species[14]. This information was therefore obtained from the literature as noted in the following discussions. Only electrofishing data were used for the modeling effort as electrofishing is the single most effective sampling gear[15], and it has been used consistently as part of the ORERP. Since 1991, electrofishing has been conducted at night, rather than during the day, to be consistent with the approach recommended by Ohio EPA. Because catch rates and species composition changed in response to this change in sampling protocol, only electrofishing data from 1991 to 1998 were used in the model. Nighttime electrofishing data from 1992 to 1998 collected by ORSANCO were also used to supplement the ORERP electrofishing data. Losses due to impingement and entrainment were based on data extracted from 316(b) study reports prepared for the above-listed power plants and for the Philip Sporn and Miami Fort power plants located in the Robert Byrd and Markland pools, respectively. Even though survival for some entrained species can be relatively high, the model conservatively assumed that all entrained fish were killed. Likewise, it was assumed that all impinged fish were killed.
