The Barnett Reservoir has been plagued by a few different nuisances over the past few years, including the repeated placement of rebar in the water and giant salvinia, an invasive aquatic plant that has proved difficult to treat.
And now, the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District (PRVWSD) is dealing with some unexpected effects from the coronavirus pandemic. All parks and boat ramps were forced to close for two weeks and there was a temporary ban on boating and fishing.
Despite the absence of boat traffic, the PRVWSD was not been able to ramp up efforts to deal with the issues of giant salvinia or rebar in the reservoir before the summer months due to coronavirus.
“The COVID-19 restriction on groups of 10 and social distancing has had the effect of reducing our workforce,” said PRVWSD Executive Director John Sigman. “We are having to limit crew size and alternate work days. Thus, there has been no increased effort on rebar.”
Thousands of these long pieces of steel, or rebar, have been extracted from the lake as more continue to be placed.
Sigman said rebar is typically placed to mark tree stumps in the lake by boaters, but most of the time they end up causing more harm to boats than the trees.
“We’re continuing to remove rebar,” Sigman said. “We have made a lot of progress in the last year, and we’re continuing to remove it.”
Placing rebar in the reservoir is a crime and is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.
“It remains illegal to put rebar in the lake,” Sigman said. “I would urge any boater, any resident or anyone who sees someone doing that to call the reservoir police.”
Sigman said most of the rebar found has been in the upper half of the lower lake, but that there is rebar in all segments of the lake.
“The worst areas are in the upper lake along the Rankin County side in the areas where you have to adhere to channel markers to avoid trees. And that’s what most of them are marking is trees. It’s primarily between Twin Harbour and Highway 43,” Sigman said.
The problem is that, because the lake level fluctuates, a piece of rebar that may be visible when it is placed may not be visible later until it is too late.
Rebar can easily rip through a boat, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage. It is also dangerous to those who are being pulled behind a boat.
So far, no one has been caught placing rebar in the lake.
“We’ve removed thousands. We didn’t count them or weigh them, but we had a large stack of them, and we eventually sold them as scrap metal,” Sigman added.
On the giant salvinia front, Sigman said things are looking up.
“The reports we get from Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks on salvinia are good,” Sigman said. “There have been no live plants found.”
This good news comes after roughly two years of battling the invasive plant.
