Wild, Water-Cleaning Creatures

TVA and partners help restore mighty mussels in rivers

Deep within the Tennessee River and its tributaries are creatures that help keep our water clean.

Mussels with fantastic names – such as snuffbox, sheepnose and Appalachian elktoe – act as the "livers of the rivers.” A single mussel filters 8 to15 gallons of water each day.

Fish of all kinds – big bass, buffalo and trout, and all the little fish those species eat – depend on the freshwater-filtering services of mussels. And many creatures on land feast on mussels, too, leaving shells littered on riverbanks.

Imagine what hundreds – thousands – of mussels working away underwater can do for fish, for people and their drinking water, for the rivers that flow through hydroelectric dams and power the Valley region.

Yet some mussel populations have declined, requiring people to come together to restore them to the rivers that so many depend on for food, clean water and power.

The Appalachian rockshell is one of these mussels. On the brink of extinction, it has a tiny population and a big job. It lives only in the Powell and Clinch rivers in east Tennessee. Bringing it back is a story of partnerships across the region.

Partners from TVA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency and Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources collected a few of the only surviving Appalachian rockshell mussels in the world. They brought them to the Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Center in Marion, Virginia, in hopes of raising young.

Mussels are hard to raise. They release their tiny larvae, called glochidia, only in specific host fish – so finding a match and making it work is a challenge. The project took years.

The result? More baby mussels hatched than anyone anticipated. Biologists had enough to release 100 to their home rivers and keep some in the hatchery to raise more.

On a summer day full of cicada-song, biologists carefully carried mesh bags of the hatchery-raised Appalachian rockshell mussels to the clear, cool Powell River.

They searched the river bottom for rocky habitat that looked just right.

Then they carefully nestled the mussels into the rocky bottom. These mussels are 1 to 4 years old.

Each of the mussels sported a bright dot. When biologists snorkel in the stream in coming seasons, they’ll be able to spot the hatchery-raised mussels. And they’ll look for baby mussels without dots – a sign that mussels are happily breeding in the wild once again.

With all the mussels settled into the river, the biologists left for the next site on the Clinch River. It’s time for the mussels to work, silently and continuously filtering the waters that power people’s lives.

TVA’s stewardship of the region’s creatures, waters and lands helps improve lives. Stewardship brings billions of dollars into local economies for recreation and conservation. Through careful management of the river system, TVA has helped avert billions of dollars in flood damage over the decades.

Partnerships such as this ensure TVA fulfills its mission of stewardship and builds tomorrow together. It's just one way TVA is powering industry, individuals and ecosystems of the Valley region.