Waterfowl hunters of the West Sandy Wildlife Management Area near Springville, Tennessee will have to hunt somewhere else for the next few seasons. The Tennessee Valley Authority has flooded the land since the 1970's to allow for waterfowl hunting, but spokesman Bill Sitton says they’re leaving the area dry during this upcoming fall to repair the pump house for the bottoms. He says,
“Because we can only get workers safely in certain parts of the pump house when Kentucky reservoir is at its lowest, that’s why we’re having to do it at this time. And if we don’t get these repairs made, we’d be risking having something more major go wrong with the pump house.”
Sitton says they’ll be repairing three of the pump houses this season, and the other three next season. He says the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency will try to make arrangements with hunters who will be displaced by the repairs. Sitton says the work will start October 1st and would last about eight weeks.