CLINCHPORT — U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists from Virginia and Tennessee will inject a red dye into the Clinch River at Clinchport today as part of a multifaceted study targeting water quality concerns on the Virginia stretch of the river.

“We’re hoping it doesn’t rain. One thing we’re hoping for is consistent river levels for the next week or so. We tried to do this at the end of July and ended up getting rained out,” said Jenniver Krstolic, a USGS water quality specialist. “We had a successful first trial. It looked red for maybe a quarter of a mile, then it looks a little pink further downstream. Besides that it’s fairly undetectable.”

A fluorometer will detect dye levels near the release point, about three miles, six miles, nine miles and 12 miles downstream to Kyle’s Ford in Tennessee. A second injection will cover a stretch of the river from Pendleton Island at Fort Blackmore to Clinchport, and another from Dungannon to Fort Blackmore.

The study will provide scientists data on sediment, “not so much sources but how fast sediment may be moving through the system. There is another study about how much sediment flows through the system, and this tells us how much sediment moves from Virginia to Tennessee,” Krstolic said.

The dye study will also provide data on how fast contaminants move downstream, she said, important data for emergency responders such as Hazardous Materials (HazMat) teams to head off the movement of a contaminant, capture and remove it. Such an incident involving an overturned diesel tanker affected a portion of the Pound River in Wise County last month.

Besides the water resources/sediment study Krstolic and her counterpart in Tennessee hope to launch today, other facets are being conducted by USGS biologists based at Virginia Tech as well as geography/geology specialists. The ultimate concern is for critters living in the Clinch River, she said, particularly freshwater mussels.

“So we kind of come together, each of us in our interdisciplinary specialties, to get as good an idea as we can about what is happening in the river and why — to see why mussels seem to be declining in health on the Virginia side,” she said.

“The motivation is learning more about what is in the river contaminant-wise, sediment-wise and water quality-wise. The dye study is a component of a larger study we are doing on mussel health and freshwater fish,” Krstolic said.

“Some data shows a decline of mussel health on the Virginia side, so we have been conducting a sort of paired water study. We’re monitoring water quality real-time to see if anything really jumps out. The mussels habitat-wise you would assume is similar (in both states), so perhaps there is a water quality component affecting them.”