White water park for Port Jervis?

Play time for play boats

By FRITZ MAYER

MONGAUP RIVER, NY — If you’re looking for evidence about the popularity of white water boating, turn out to the Mongaup River just beneath the Rio Reservoir Dam from April through October on weekends when there is a scheduled release from the dam.

More than 50 paddlers turned out for the release on August 8, toting what are called play boats, which are very short kayaks, sealed with a skirt, that some paddlers use to perform tricks on white water.

Ellen Moscowitz and her husband Jack were on hand and said that in the Northeast in the summer, play boaters largely follow releases from dams to get their fix of white water. There are regularly scheduled releases on the Mongaup River in Sullivan County, on the Lehigh River in Northeast Pennsylvania and the Deerfield River in Massachusetts.

Ellen said, “The releases are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as part of the dam licensing agreement. When they re-license the dams, different groups of people can request access and use of a river, So to get this release, which is scheduled for weekends, whitewater boaters and fishermen and everyone who uses the river negotiated with the power company that owns the dam and FERC to schedule the releases.”

Some people in Port Jervis think it would be a good idea to create a white water park in the Upper Delaware River that wouldn’t be dependent on a dam release, and would attract play boaters to the city. Chris Howells, a paddler from Milford, PA is one of a group of people who are advocating for such a park.

Howells said the park would be located on a channel that runs between an island and the city in a part of the river that nearly runs dry in the summer. He said, “Basically, what you would have to do is create drops in the river bed, which would create a wave that these boaters can then surf on. It’s all about surfing, and while you’re surfing you perform these spins cartwheels and flips.”

This type of alteration would involve the PA Department of Environmental Preservation, the NY Department of Environmental Conservation, the Army Corps of Engineers and possibly the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Upper Delaware Council and the National Park Service. Howells said the initial responses from officials have been positive.

The paddlers on the Mongaup supported the idea. Ellen said, ‘There are a lot of boaters in this area, and it’s a place you could get to, for example, on a week night.”

Another paddler on the Mongaup, Steve McLuckie, said it would likely be good for the economy. “When we show up, we buy gas for the cars, we generally stop and buy ice cream or lunch or dinner afterward. Also, people like to watch us play. If you have a riverside park, people will congregate to watch.”

A PowerPoint presentation about the proposed Port Jervis park said that a similar one in Golden, CO, brings up to $2 million per year to the local economy. The presentation will be given at the Port Jervis meeting on Monday, August 23 at 6:00 p.m. at Port Jervis City Hall, located at 20 Hammond Street.