BigBendFishing.Net

I saw some discovery show last night where in Europe and in the U.S.
they were talking about how so many contaminants get into the rivers
and eventually to the ocean, pretty sad...though some effort has been
made to change things. Contaminants we can't see that hang around for
years and years killing off species of fish, etc.. Wondering what sort of impact that old refinery, etc. had on St. Marks area, don't much history about that area, guess I need to look. Hoping to go fishing this weekend
I can feel the urge becoming undeniable.

I'm no tree hugger, but that subject really get's my dander up too.
In Atlanta, the city has water treatment plants along the chattahoochee river that are not up to par. They dump thousands of gallons of untreated sewage into the river everyday. Of course there is a fine for this, but it's never paid and it continues to grow.

Powell, when I was a kid in St. Marks (about a 100 years ago) Tenaco used to constantly have fuel spills that ran into the St. Marks river. I remember three different occasions where St. Marks was evacuated in the middle of the night because so much fuel was leaked from the holding tanks. One time it got about a foot and a half deep inside the retaining walls around the tanks. All that ran into the ditches and straight into the river.
At one time the barges would be so thick they would be backed up almost to the Fort along the bank waiting to be filled. They always seemed to have spills back then and no one seemed to be that concerned.
Never heard of any problems with the power plant. Always seemed to be clean water coming from the outlet. Always held fish in the warm water in the winter time.
McKenzie(spelling?) tank lines there had thier share of spills also.

If you want to know what the spills have done to the river throughout the years, go a few blocks, up the Wakulla river. Dive down and grab a hand full of mud. Then go between the fort and the power plant/oil docks and dive down and get a hand full of mud. Quite different. It aint mud. It's the nastiest stuff you've ever seen. Probably carsenogenic. Been there for years, and it's deep too. Boats in the St. Marks seem to stain too.

Capt. Charlie, your right about staining boats. That's one reason I don't fish over there more than I do. Also the fish taste different in the St. Marks than over towards Keaton. I can tell a fish came from that area, just by smelling it when it's being fried.

Thanks for info, hindsight an interesting thing, guess they never tried to
to clean it up...., guess we would be whining if we did not have heating
oil or gas to put in our motors though.