The electrofishing was part of the EPA's biological assessment monitoring program. The agency is recognized nationally as a leader in biocriteria, a process used to evaluate water quality and set pollution limits on rivers and lakes. Biocriteria is based on the assumption that, unlike people, animals won't live in an unfit home. Restoring the chemical purity of the water often is not enough to bring them back. They need habitat, and that can mean everything from a rocky river bottom to the cool shade of a forested stream bank.
Paint Creek appears to have the right stuff to support fish.
The fish were weighed, recorded and tossed back into the river. Even though they've never heard of biocriteria, it's almost intuitive that indigenous animals who use the stream will reflect the health of the river. Ohio EPA scientists have been using biocriteria for 15 years. In 1990, the state became one of only a few to have the process written into water-pollution laws. If an industry or city sewage-plant operator wants to increase pollution in the stream, it must convince the EPA that the additional pollutants won't harm the bugs and fish.