Blow Out at Hydro Dam Kills Trout

An electrical glitch at the hydro-electric dam near Confluence killed nearly 1,200 trout last week. About 500 survived. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Jeff Hawk says the power went out around 4 A.M. Thursday. Workers at the plant arrived a few hours later and fixed the outage and it wasn't until late afternoon on Friday that a fisherman noticed dead fish in the pens owned by Trout Unlimited and notified the Corps. Hawk says the two devices at the plant failed: one was a blower that provides atmospheric air to the pens and one was a pure oxygen injector. Hawk says the fish died from a lack of oxygen and that their deaths were a delayed reaction and occurred after both devices had been restored. He says the hydro-power plant operator, the Chestnut Ridge chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Corps are working to create dedicated lines for the two devices, so that if one fails, the other will continue to operate. Trout Unlimited provides the trout that populates the Youghiogheny River.