Bear Creek Reservoir

Ecological health rating

Bear Creek Reservoir rated at the low end of the fair range in 2009. Bear Creek also rated fair in 2007 but has rated poor most years. The higher ratings in 2007and 2009 were due primarily to improved chlorophyll levels.

TVA monitors one location on Bear Creek Reservoir—the deep, still water near the dam, called the forebay—usually on a two-year cycle.

Bear Creek Reservoir Ecological Health Ratings, 1994-2009

Click chart for raw data

The table below shows the ratings for individual ecological health indicators at Bear Creek in 2009. These ratings are briefly explained in the paragraphs that follow.

Ecological Health Indicators at
Bear Creek Reservoir, 2009

Monitoring
location

Dissolved oxygen

Chlorophyll

Fish

Bottom life

Sediment

Forebay

Poor

Fair

Good

Dissolved oxygen

As in previous years, dissolved oxygen rated poor in 2009. The lower half of the water column had low dissolved oxygen concentrations during the summer months.

Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll rated fair. The summer average chlorophyll concentration has been lower since 2007, resulting in improved ratings. Chlorophyll typically has rated poor on Bear Creek Reservoir.

Fish

The fish community rated high-fair. Fish community scores have consistently been at the upper end of the fair-to-good range.

Bottom life

Bottom life rated low-fair because few animals were found, and most were species able to tolerate poor conditions. Bottom life typically rates at the low end of the fair range or poor.

Sediment

Sediment quality rated good. As in previous years, the sediment samples were free of pesticides and PCBs, and concentrations of metals were within expected background levels.

See definitions of ecological health indicators and monitoring locations.

Fish consumption advisories

Bear Creek Reservoir - TVA maintains a program to examine contaminants in fish fillets from TVA reservoirs and their major tributary streams on a rotational basis. The data collected from this program is distributed to the state officials who are responsible for placing or removing fish tissue consumption advisories on those bodies of water. For information on advisories currently in effect for Bear Creek Reservoir, visit the Epidemiology Division of Alabama Department of Public Health’s web page. http://www.adph.org/tox/index.asp?ID=1360