=Star-Ledger Article: Upper Delaware River=

To all,
Today's New Jersey Star - Ledger.

At:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index....9590496810.xml

Trout fishermen can't go with river's altered flow
Anglers are cool to a plan that may heat the upper Delaware
Monday, June 21, 2004

BY ALEXANDER LANE
Star-Ledger Staff

HANCOCK, N.Y. -- If fly-fishing is more religion than sport, the upper
Delaware River is a blessed place.

It glides, cool and transparent, through the southern shoulders of the
Catskills. An eagle might cruise overhead. A bear might sneak down for a
drink. If the fly lands just right, a wild 20-inch rainbow trout might rise
like an air bubble, sip it up, then rocket out of the water, hot pink,
speckled green and savage.

"I've fished in Africa, Brazil, you name it," said Delaware guide Jim
Costolnick, known as "Coz" on the ESPN fishing show he hosted for four
years. "And there's only one place I want to live."

Anglers from around the world visit this 85-mile stretch of the "Big D."
Thousands come from New Jersey.

It's all at risk, Costolnick and other guides said.

New York City controls two dammed reservoirs just upstream. Under a new plan
approved in April by New Jersey and the other states that control the
Delaware, the city has changed its regime for releasing water from those
reservoirs and a third downstream.

New York and New Jersey officials say slightly more water will flow from the
three reservoirs under the new plan. Costolnick and others who live off the
river say they fear the changes will mean less water coming down the
Delaware to their fishing spots.

Fishermen, guides and shopkeepers contend the city has always been stingy
with its water, cutting what could be a five-month fly-fishing season in
half.

Officials counter that 9 million people in New York City and elsewhere count
on those reservoirs. Furthermore, low reservoir levels in New York trigger
drought restrictions all the way down the river, costing New Jersey
businesses millions.

"I made damn well sure that this would not impact New Jersey's water
supply," Ernie Hahn, assistant commissioner of the N.J. Department of
Environmental Protection, said of the new plan. "The New York fishery is
clearly secondary in my concern."

To those who accuse them of shortchanging nature, Hahn and New York
officials have an easy answer: that trout fishery, whatever else it may be,
is not natural.


A HAPPY ACCIDENT

Rainbow trout are there only because someone put them there a century ago.

They struggled for decades, along with diminishing populations of native
brook and brown trout.

Runoff from logging and mining made for a warm river. Trout languish in
water over 65 degrees, and may die when it passes 75.

In the 1950s and '60s, New York City dammed the river and filled the
Cannonsville and the Pepacton reservoirs upstream.

The 40-degree water released periodically from the bottom of the reservoirs
energized the fish, which grew strong off the river's abundant mayflies.

After a few productive generations, they were bigger, more colorful and
smarter than any trout this side of Montana, easily outclassing the sluggish
stocked trout common in the East.

These wild rainbows regularly humiliate great fishermen, nosing a fly then
twitching away with what some anglers swear is a smirk.

But when they bite ...

"They're the hardest fighting trout I've ever caught in my life," said
Walter Falkoff, 55, a guide who has fished the world over. "If I couldn't
fish here, I don't see a reason to go on."

Sounds extreme. But on the Delaware such sentiments are not uncommon.

Among those hanging out on the couches in the back of Costolnick's shop and
complaining about the low, warm river last week were a Verona builder who
fishes three days a week for three months a year and a New York City
neurosurgeon who is shopping for a second home, or "fish camp," in the area.

"If this were managed with just half a thought, the economics would be
tremendous," said Richard Carroll, 55, a dentist who already has a fish
camp.

Locals in depressed New York river towns like Hancock, Lordville and
Callicoon chafe at the irony. Much of New York City was built with timber
and bluestone floated down the Delaware from these hills. Now that the city
has used most of that up, it takes the water.

"How much longer do the Catskills have to pay for New York City?" said Paul
Weamer, 32, a tackle-shop owner in Hancock.


A SCARCE SUPPLY

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court said New York could take 800 million gallons
a day from the river, as long as it released enough water so 1,750 cubic
feet flowed by Montague, in Sussex County, every second.

The Delaware River Basin Commission, made up of representatives from New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the federal government,
oversees the river's management. Under its new plan, New York also will have
to meet new flow requirements on three branches upstream, and try to keep
the water from heating beyond 75 degrees.

This arrangement will last three years. In the meantime, state and private
scientists will conduct at least six studies on the river.

"The overall goal is to make substantial changes based on solid science,"
said Colin Apse of the Nature Conservancy, who is overseeing the plan for
the commission.

The Delaware as a whole will get more water under the new plan, though the
stretch where the trout jump might get slightly less, officials said.

Costolnick and other guides, irate at that prospect, have formed a group
called the Friends of the Upper Delaware River to fight the plan.

Other things about it make them nervous. Among the studies is one on a
population of endangered dwarf wedgemussels, whose needs may or may not be
consistent with those of the trout.

Furthermore, a hydroelectric power plant on a Delaware feeder south of the
trout fishery may begin releasing more water in August this year. That will
count toward the Montague minimum, but won't help the overheated trout.

The Friends' chief demand is that New York release 600 cubic feet per second
from May to September from Cannonsville.

Won't happen, said Michael Principe, water supply director for New York
City.

"There just wouldn't be enough water," he said. "We could have three
straight dry months."

And the city's looking out for its long-term rights, he said.

"The way we look at it is where will we be in 2050," Principe said. "And we
are going to need the Delaware River system."



Alexander Lane covers the environment. He can be reached at
or (973) 392-1790.