Clinch River - History

History

A peninsula located at the mouth of the Clinch River, called Southwest Point, was the site of an early frontier fort which has been recently reconstructed. This site was important to Native Americans. A treaty between the Cherokees and the white settlers was signed at Southwest Point, allowing the Capital of Tennessee to be moved there. The Tennessee General Assembly fulfilled this requirement technically by meeting in Kingston for one day, and then voting to move the capital city elsewhere.

The river was once called "Clinch's River" and "Pelisipi River" (and variant spellings such as "Pelisippi" and "Pellissippi"). The name is said to mean "winding waters" in the Cherokee language. (This claim is problematic. See Talk:Clinch River). The word has been used in the area, such as Pellissippi Parkway and Pellissippi State Technical Community College.

A huge coal-fired power plant sits on the Clinch River at Carbo in Russell County, Virginia. It was completed in 1957, and it is owned by Appalachian Power, a part of American Electric Power. On June 25, 2008, permits were approved by the state Air Pollution Control Board for another coal-fired power plant, a few miles away outside St. Paul, Virginia, by Dominion Virginia Power.

Pollution from mining in the region has caused great concern among environmentalists because several rare species inhabit the river. Some mussels have been reintroduced to the Cleveland, Virginia, area from outside the state the early 2000s after pollution in the 20th century wiped out much of the population.

In 2008, a large release of fly ash from the TVA Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant deposited fly ash in the lower section of the river below the confluence of the Emory River.