Springmillvol
Well-known member
Family obligations have kept me off the water for a month or so and I was wondering how the grass is coming along this year?
Thanks
Thanks
FirstLight - 6/11/2021 10:12 AM
It is growing. But the aquatic herbicide air boats usually start showing up in FULL force about now - so there's that.
FishingwithRusty - 6/11/2021 10:46 AM
FirstLight - 6/11/2021 10:12 AM
It is growing. But the aquatic herbicide air boats usually start showing up in FULL force about now - so there's that.
ive been thinking about this. if TVA says they only spray public access points and swim areas and home owners can only pay to have the area around their docks sprayed.................if we see spray boats ANYWHERE else we should challenge/question them and what the hell they are doing.
seriously, if they are not around private docks or public access areas they are not supposed to be spraying as far as i know. someone educate me if im wrong
Cstick1 - 6/11/2021 12:30 PM
How can you tell their sprayers are on?
Cstick1 - 6/11/2021 11:30 AM
How can you tell their sprayers are on?
FishingwithRusty - 6/11/2021 3:05 PM
there it is folks, if you see them outside of these areas or adjacent to homeonwners docks we should question what they are doing! SERIOUSLY, the only thing keeping chick from becoming a dead sea is the grass!
churly - 6/11/2021 3:32 PM
FishingwithRusty - 6/11/2021 3:05 PM
there it is folks, if you see them outside of these areas or adjacent to homeonwners docks we should question what they are doing! SERIOUSLY, the only thing keeping chick from becoming a dead sea is the grass!
Rusty, this fight started long ago. I sat at the table with lake "stakeholders" and TVA when they came up with the new "rules". and they are not legal rules., but an agreement amongst the stake holders. I was president of CBA at the time and felt like we needed to be involved as much as possible and I think the fishermen in general did a good job putting pressure on TVA to stick to their agreement. Im not gonna rehash what the agreement says because its there for you to read. But, the contracted Sprayer; Aquaservices, has their shit together. They have all of the TDEC (State arm of the EPA) permits, which BTW are not hard to get. And they follow the rules. Their herbicides are weighted with chelated copper, so they sink. They have a main tank that has rubber hoses that hang behind the boat and are released subsurface so you wont ever see an actual "Spray" coming from the boat. TVA doesnt want to spend the money to treat any more areas than they have to, and Aqua services is not going to treat an area just because they dont like the grass. Does that make sense? I guess Im trying to say, I dont believe these guys bend the rules, because they have no motivation to do so. its too expensive to pay for chemicals and labor to do it for free, the other end of that is how are they gonna make any more money if all of the grass gets wiped out of the lake? Let me be clear, I am 100% anti-herbicide!!! I fought my ass off and spent a lot of time working to keep 1988-91 from happening again, and its not. Back then, it was a lake wide aquatic vegetation extermination project and it worked for years. what they are doing now is more of management.
We followed spray boats for years and annually hear people saying they were spraying the main river and all this and that, but no one has ever offered proof. If you do see what you think is wrong doing, I suggest you make a call to TDEC, and the Hamilton County office of the Dept. of Agriculture.
pinsandfins - 6/12/2021 12:06 AM
From what I understand, TVA contracts out most of the spraying. And from what I know about spraying chemical, you can’t leave any chemical in the tank and lines, and they have to be washed out daily. That being said, any time they spray an area they are hired to spray and they have chemical left over, they go get rid of it somewhere else. I have witnessed it on the lower chick where they have gone up into sloughs with no docks in them to get rid of the rest. Very unfortunate and they should be regulated and monitored better than they are.
pinsandfins - 6/12/2021 2:06 AM
From what I understand, TVA contracts out most of the spraying. And from what I know about spraying chemical, you can’t leave any chemical in the tank and lines, and they have to be washed out daily. That being said, any time they spray an area they are hired to spray and they have chemical left over, they go get rid of it somewhere else. I have witnessed it on the lower chick where they have gone up into sloughs with no docks in them to get rid of the rest. Very unfortunate and they should be regulated and monitored better than they are.