Delaware River Basin Commission receives formal response to their plan from FUDR

The Friends of the Upper Delaware River (FUDR) is a nonprofit organization, incorporated in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and formed for the express purpose of protecting and enhancing the wild trout fishery in the Delaware River from the Cannonsville Reservoir downstream through the Scenic Corridor. FUDR is opposed to draft Docket No D-77-20 CP (Revision 7) and the “Proposed Interim Fishery Management Plan” as presented at a public meeting in Hawley, PA on March 2, 2004. Our principal objection is that the release program from May 1, 2004 to May 31, 2007, prescribed by the draft resolution, is inadequate to maintain, much less improve, the world famous wild trout fishery that currently exists on the upper Delaware River.

The existing wild trout fishery was developed as a result of water released from the Cannonsville Reservoir over the past 30 years, primarily to meet the minimum flow of 1750 cfs at Montague, New Jersey, as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court Decree in 1954. (Releases from the Pepacton and Neversink reservoirs cannot provide cold water to the main stem for several reasons that will be discussed below.) In order to meet the 1750 minimum flow, releases from Cannonsville averaging in excess of 650 cfs during the critical months of June through September have been required. These releases have produced an excellent fishery throughout the West Branch and main stem. However, there have been weaknesses in the release regime that have been very damaging, that have led to occasional fish kills and that often resulted in very poor conditions for the insects, the fish, the trout fisherman and the local economies:

(A) Releases have been needlessly erratic, averaging 650 cfs, but fluctuating widely from day-to-day. This has often left insects high and dry, has interrupted hatching activity, stressed the trout, ruined the fishing and negatively impacted the local economies – occasionally for weeks at a time.

(B) Fluctuating releases have often led to water temperatures well above target maximums (72 degrees F average and 75 degrees F instantaneous) which exceed the 68 degree F temperature level above which trout become stressed.

(C) So called thermal releases have been poorly timed and often have not been made even when desperately needed.

(D) In apparent violation of Part 671 of New York State DEC regulations, cold water releases have often not been made during periods when warm water is spilling over the top of the reservoirs. This has had predictably negative effects on the fishing.

In our opinion, if 650 cfs average releases were adjusted gradually

(ramped) over a period of days rather than hours, the insects would be protected, hatching activity would b

enhanced, the trout would be healthier, fishing would improve and the economic activity of the area would be substantially enlarged. Moreover, all of these positive things could be accomplished using little, if any, more water than has been used over the last 30 years.

Note: Nothing in the proposed experimental release program Rev. 7, addresses these negligent procedures that unnecessarily harm the existing fishery. Moreover, the combined conservation, habitat and thermal banks prescribed are inadequate to maintain the thermal and habitat requirements that were accidentally met during the past 30 years, simply by meeting the 1750 cfs Montague flow target.

The advent of new power generating releases by PPL will greatly change the flow regime in the entire Upper Delaware System under the guidelines of the proposed resolution. Instead of releasing flows from Cannonsville at historic levels throughout the hot summer months to satisfy the 1750 cfs flow target at Montague, releases under Revision 7 will, at times, be required only to satisfy arbitrarily determined and woefully inadequate habitat and thermal requirements. Moreover, the plan acknowledges that habitat and thermal requirements necessary to sustain the existing fishery in the main stem cannot be met with the banks authorized in the proposed resolution.

We believe that the proposed interim plan falls short of protecting, let alone improving, the existing fishery because it relies on inaccurate and unsubstantiated assumptions.

First, although the study conducted by Sheppard (1983), that is used to support the pending proposal, concluded that 225 cfs at Hale Eddy "should be considered for the waters in the Upper Delaware basin during normal and below-normal storage conditions, provided that temperature requirements can be satisfied", Sheppard also stated in his report that "for the protection of the designated trout management section on the main Delaware River (Hancock to Callicoon), the West Branch summer conservation releases will have to be greater than 325 cfs." Friends of the Upper Delaware understand that for much of the time under the proposed plan, releases in excess of 225 cfs will be necessary to meet the 1750 Montague target as in years past. However, the plan gives no guarantee that adequate releases will be made from Cannonsville in the summer months if the 1750 cfs flow at Montague is met by other releases, such as from Lake Wallenpaupack by PPL. The fishery, under the proposed interim plan, will often be at the mercy of “thermal releases”, with their demonstrated unreliability and inadequacy even when sufficient water is available. Given the acknowledged inadequacy of the proposed thermal banks to meet the temperature requirements of the existing trout fishery downstream of Hancock, it is manifestly inaccurate and misleading to either imply or assert that the proposed release program is an improvement over existing conditions. Clearly, it is a step backward and jeopardizes the existing fishery and the local economies that depend on a viable coldwater fishery during the late spring and through the summer. Unnaturally fluctuating temperatures and flows during the summer disrupt the cycle of reproduction (hatches) of aquatic insects, reduce the trout’s food supply and diminish (or eliminate) surface feeding by the trout. These conditions are damaging to the fish population and subsequently cause anglers to stay home rather than come to fish, thereby immediately harming the local economies.

Second, the proposed interim plan fails to recognize that erratic and unnecessarily low, summer flows, not low winter flows, are most limiting to trout populations. Our scientific advisors inform us that low winter flows, as currently provided for in the Upper Delaware system are, indeed, too low and are unnecessarily harmful to the trout population, but that there is enough water within the system, if conscientiously applied, to provide sufficient habitat throughout the cold winter months. Trout and aquatic insects can adapt to low winter flows given sufficient time to move, and provided enough flow is maintained and gradually changed to avoid the destructive impacts of anchor ice. Such a release/flow regime can easily be provided without any impact on other users. However, trout and insects have not adapted, and physiologically cannot adapt, to sudden changes in water level and temperature during the critical summer months when they are actively feeding and growing. It is the summer months that are so important to the aquatic insects upon which the trout depend for their food. And it is during the summer months when sufficient habitat must be provided while the trout are actively feeding and experiencing most growth. Sudden changes in water level and temperature disrupt the behavior of the trout and kill untold numbers of insects. What is more, such unnatural changes disrupt the normal life cycle of growth, emergence, reproduction and dispersion of aquatic insects. Sudden increases and decreases in water temperature and level have undoubtedly limited the size of the insect and trout populations in past years. Under the proposed resolution, Revision 7, this situation would get even worse. Fish kills, as dramatic as they appear, are probably not as harmful as the unseen killers described above. That is the reason we propose optimum thermal criteria (68 F max), rather than incipient lethal temperatures as guidelines for future studies.

The Friends of the Upper Delaware propose that unlike the past, the trout fishery and other recreational and economic interests be given equal consideration as out-of-basin and downstream users. The proposed resolution and the information presented on March 2, 2004, at Hawley, PA, give the erroneous impression that there is insufficient water to sustain the existing trout fishery (specifically in the upper main stem of the Delaware) but at the same time imply that the plan would actually improve the fishery. Such inconsistencies and contradictions are ample proof of the inadequacy and inaccuracy of the proposed plan. We contend that the issue is not so much the availability of sufficient water, as it is a question of what priority (if any) is assigned to protecting and improving the trout fishery and the economic viability of the Upper Delaware Communities.

The Friends of the Upper Delaware strongly advise that the proposed Docket NO D-77-20 CP (Revision 7) be amended to include a minimum release of 600 cfs from the Cannonsville Reservoir from the period of May 15 through September 15 and a minimum release of 300 cfs during the remainder of the year. Optimum minimum releases should also be made from the Pepacton and Neversink Reservoirs to enhance the fisheries in the East Branch and the Neversink. Our 600/300 cfs proposal for the West Branch can be implemented without substantially changing the study parameters of the proposed fishery plan and without materially affecting currently authorized uses of the water within the basin. Such measures would protect the fishery and would completely eliminate the factors that are limiting its full development.

Although we are in full support of efforts to improve conditions on the East Branch and the Neversink, it is important to understand that adjustments to their release regimes will have little or no direct impact on the West Branch/main stem fishery. The Neversink flows into the Delaware well downstream from the cold water trout fishery. As for the East Branch, because the Pepacton Dam is far above the junction with the Beaverkill and because the Beaverkill runs warm in the summer, there is no way that larger releases from Pepacton could cool the main stem.

Finally, we maintain that whenever the Cannonsville Reservoir level drops to 30% capacity or lower, releases should be augmented by releases from the Pepacton Reservoir on the East Branch to reduce the amount of silt and low dissolved oxygen water emanating from the Cannonsville Reservoir under such conditions. In 2001, we came within a hair of losing the entire fishery when the Rivermaster reduced the Cannonsville Reservoir to an unprecedented 3% level while the Pepacton reservoir was still at approximately 70% of its capacity. Despite numerous complaints from anglers and businesses, the Rivermaster continued to draw the reservoir down. Only at the 11th hour, rain prevented a major catastrophe. It is unconscionable that this could be allowed to occur on a world famous wild trout fishery.

It is recognized that in unusually dry years the above recommended releases might not be sustainable at all times without affecting other authorized uses of the reservoir system. And it is equally true that in some years more water may be available for sustaining the trout fishery. FUDR would welcome the opportunity to assist in developing measurable protocols that would trigger a proportional reduction of the releases recommended above during periods of drought or anticipated drought. It is recognized that under such a release plan the Delaware trout fishery, as occurs in all trout fisheries, might experience occasional, infrequent, declines during dry periods. But such declines would occur as a result of infrequent natural conditions, rather than by a permanent decline brought on by unnecessary and arbitrary limitations imposed by the release program currently under consideration.

Attached, please find a copy of the twelve points that support the Mission Statement developed by the Friends of the Upper Delaware River. These points, we feel, are a critical foundation to a comprehensive fisheries management plan.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Friends of the Upper Delaware River.