December 2005 Announcement from  U. S. Congressman Marion Berry:

Improving Trout Fishing Along the White River
After years of work to improve trout fishing opportunities along the White River in North Central Arkansas, Congressman John Boozman (AR-03) and I, were able to secure language in the Fiscal Year 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that directs the Army Corps of Engineers to release minimum flows on the White River at Bull Shoals and Norfolk Lakes and construct a fish hatchery in the tailwaters at Beaver Dam. This victory puts an end to decades of debate over chronic low water levels that limit trout growth and survival below Bull Shoals and Norfork dams. The changes to the water flow will improve trout habitat without increasing rates for electric customers who rely on hydropower produced at the dams.

Below Are Two Newspaper Articles From Local Paper - The Baxter Bulletin

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*This story was published Thursday, November 25, 2005*

Minimum flow Changes may be coming sooner than later

MAGGIE ROTERMUND
Baxter Bulletin Staff Writer

Dam changes could be here sooner than you think.

Minimum flow legislation has now passed through both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking at funding for the upcoming year.

According to Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., there was no funding mechanism in the bill, but the Corps can reprogram other money to get the project up and running.

"The first-year projections on cost weren't that high anyway," Berry said. "The Corps can reorganize some money from other sources to get this started."

Berry said the funding was most likely from programs that were either overbudgeted or came in below projected costs, leaving the Corps with funds on hand.

"Think of it as using a credit card this year," he said. "By next year we should have some funding mechanism set up."

Berry said he became involved with minimum flow to improve the habitat for fishing.

"This will improve fishing on the White River from Baxter County all the way down," he said.

The minimum flow releases at Bull Shoals and Norfork dams were approved in an appropriations bill for energy and water programs.

Berry said the language in the Energy and Water Appropriations Act would modify the operation of Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes to include storage capacity benefiting tail water trout fisheries on the White River.

The specific amounts of water authorized to provide minimum flows necessary to sustain tail water trout fisheries within each White River lake:

5 feet, Bull Shoals Lake

3.5 feet, Norfork Lake

The language is a compromise that doesn't force rate increases on electric customers who rely on power produced at the dams.

When the dams are shut down, the water level decreases and the gravel at the bottom of the river heats up.

Berry said he didn't foresee any economic boom to the area because of minimum flow.

"We already have great fishing here and people know that," Berry said. "This isn't magic, but it will make fishing more certain and stable."

Berry and Rep. John Boozman will discuss the minimum flow legislation at a press conference in Flippin Wednesday.

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*This story was published Thursday, November 10, 2005*
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*Copyright © 2005, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.*

        BY JULIE STEWART SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a compromise plan that would allow minimum-flow releases from two of the five hydropower dams on the White River.  The minimum-flow project was included in the 2006 energy and water appropriations bill, which the House passed 399-17. The Senate is expected to consider the measure before the end of the year.

Minimum flows are small releases of water from the dams, which are operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. State and federal studies show that minimum flows would improve the trout fisheries below the damsand boost the region’s tourism economy by millions of dollars annually.  The bill would implement minimum flows at Bull Shoals and Norfork dams, which bookend Baxter County on Bull Shoals Lake and Norfork Lake in northern Arkansas. It also would authorize construction of a fish hatchery at Beaver Dam on Beaver Lake in Northwest Arkansas.

The project would not force rate increases for electric customers, who rely on electricity produced at the dams, according to two Arkansas congressman who worked for passage of the bill.  U.S. Rep. John Boozman, a Republican, said he and Marion Berry, a Democrat, had worked with various groups — including Southwestern Power Administration, the government agency that sells the power produced at the dams — to broker the compromise.  “The language in this bill encourages tourism and improves the environment in the White River trout fishery while protecting the interest of our power customers,” Boozman said Wednesday. Berry called Wednesday’s vote “a great victory for the people of north-central Arkansas.”  “Increasing minimum flows on the White River will avert an environmental crisis, enhance wildlife habitat and bring much-needed tourism dollars into the region,” he said. 

The bill calls for the federal government to cover the costs of implementing minimum flows but does not includes funding for the project. Still, the two representatives said getting minimum-flow language in the bill was a giant step forward. The other two House members from Arkansas, Democrats Vic Snyder and Mike Ross, also voted for the bill.  Wednesday’s development elated two longtime supporters of minimum flows.

“I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m numb. I’ve probably got every emotion a human can have at this time,” said Jim Gaston of Lakeview, a lifetime member of the Arkansas Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission and owner of a White River resort.  Minimum flows would transform the river, said Forrest L. Wood of Flippin, a former Arkansas Game and Fish commissioner and founder of Ranger Boats in Flippin.  “It’s going to make a different river out of it. You haven’t seen anything yet compared to what the river will be in another few years,” Woods said.

Bull Shoals and Norfork were selected for water releases because “that’s where the greatest amount of benefits are,” said Mike Biggs, minimum-flow study manager for the Army Corps of Engineers in Little Rock.
The amount of lake storage set aside for minimum flows is 5 feet in 1 Bull Shoals and 3/2 feet in Norfork, meaning the water levels could be manipulated by that amount, if authorized. The other Corps of Engineers dams on the river are Beaver and Greers Ferry dams in Arkansas and Table Rock Dam in Missouri.  Federal law earmarks water in the Arkansas lakes for three purposes : flood control, hydropower generation and public water supply. An act of Congress is needed to authorize and implement minimum flows.  Biggs said minimum flows could begin at Bull Shoals Dam fairly quickly, once the funding became available, because water releases could be made with existing turbines. More work would be needed at Norfork Dam.  Total design and construction cost for achieving minimum flows at both dams would be about $5.1 million, he said.

The Corps has not completed a required environmental impact statement on minimum flows. Biggs said a draft of the statement should be ready for public comment in January 2006. Once the plan is finalized, work could begin on modifying Bull Shoals Dam as early as May 2006 — if the project is funded.  “I’d have to say optimistically, from a fisheries perspective, your most optimistic minimum-flow implementation would be sometime next fall,” Biggs said. “From a pessimistic perspective, it might be two or three years.”