Trout Unlimited warns of ‘ecological disaster’

RIVER VALLEY — A "drought emergency" threatens to compromise the health of a fishery that is worth more than $30 million to the Catskills economy according to Trout Unlimited, (TU) the nation's leading advocate for wild trout and salmon. TU called on New York City Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg to take an active role in improving flow management in the Upper Delaware when he takes office in order to avoid future catastrophes.

Reservoir releases to the upstream tailwaters have been sharply curtailed due to the deepening drought.

"These paltry flows will be an ecological  disaster for the fisheries in these three rivers and an economic disaster for the communities that depend on them," said Nat Gillespie, Trout Unlimited's Catskills Coordinator. "With the loss of the recently laid brown trout eggs, as well as mortality of adult fish, we can expect lower fish populations for the next few years. Populations of insects and other invertebrates will also take a hit."

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is currently reexamining the river's flow management plan. Trout Unlimited is calling for the parties to look at all options, including increased conservation of water, to create a flow management program based on science that will improve the health of the river system and the health of the Upper Delaware's famous wild trout fishery.

DRBC says a December 18 DRBC hearing in West Trenton, NJ has been scheduled to contemplate special drought emergency management measures. These could include directed releases from Lake Wallenpaupack and Mongaup River hydroelectric reservoirs in Hawley and Sullivan County, as well as downstream releases from the Francis E. Walter Reservoir, a flood protection impoundment on the Lehigh River.

These measures would help fight the downstream salt-front problem, when sea waters infiltrate low-lying water tables during times of low river volume, but no new measures are planned to supplement waters north of the confluence of the Lackawaxen River, where much of the endangered fishery resides.