Flow woes

As I write this column, the fates of both branches and the Main Stem of the Delaware are hanging by a thread. This morning, May 16, Nat Gillespie, the Trout Unlimited Catskill coordinator, is down at the Delaware River Basin Flow Management Committee meeting, begging the City of New York to agree to release just enough water to keep the rivers from dying. If Nat’s pleas fall on deaf ears, the economic stimulus the river brings to local businesses will sputter and die. As of this morning, according to Jim Serio of the Delaware River Foundation, the reservoirs are only one billion gallons above the drought curve. The current position of the City of New York is that by May 31 the reservoirs must be 25 billion gallons above the drought curve and then maintain that margin for 15 consecutive days before they will agree to release water. The Delaware River Foundation believes that goal simply cannot be reached. Therefore, this morning the City of New York has the power to decide whether the Delaware and its branches will live or die. The City will also be deciding whether small businesses along the rivers will survive or wither away.

Nat Gillespie will be pleading for the City of New York to release a total of six billion gallons for temperature stress relief over the rest of the entire year. That amounts to only six days water use by the City. It simply is not right that one entity has the power to destroy our rivers and damage our local economy.

I am no great fan of the Federal Government, but it seems the only way this situation will ever change is if our representatives and senators step in to force a change in the rules.

On a somewhat brighter note, the Upper Delaware Chapter of Trout Unlimited has, in the past two weeks, planted 2,000 streamco willows and an assortment of 400 white cedars, hybrid poplars, swamp roses, button bushes and red osier dogwoods along the banks of Hankins Creek, Callicoon Creek and the North Branch of Callicoon Creek. We have 800 more streamco willows, which will be planted shortly. Slowly but surely, the Upper Delaware Chapter is rearmoring the tributary banks that were denuded by the terrible flood of 1996. Nearly every dollar the Chapter raises goes to buy still more willows for next year. If you wish to participate in this effort, you can, by sending a contribution large or small to the Upper Delaware Chapter, PO Box 100, Long Eddy, NY 12760.

By the time you read this, Memorial Day will be almost here. Please pause a moment to remember those whose lives were abruptly shortened, so that we might live in freedom. You might also reflect on the following short poem by the Reverend Denis E. O’Brien, USMC.

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag,

Who allows the protester to burn the flag.