The Apex Bridge over the Cannonsville Reservoir on September 27. Photo by Jack McShane.
Paddlers and canoe enthusiasts rejoiced last year when the New York City Department of Environmental Projection announced that it would be opening up the Cannonsville reservoir in Delaware County to recreational boating. But right now, the Cannonsville's waters are so low that boating is nearly impossible, forcing the annual Lark in the Park festival to move its planned Cannonsville paddle to the Susquehanna River this week.
From the Lark in the Park website:
PLEASE NOTE: THIS OUTING WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED AS A PADDLE ON THE CANNONSVILLE RESERVOIR, HOWEVER DUE TO CURRENT WATER LEVELS, THE LEADERS WERE FORCED TO ADJUST THE EVENT ACCORDINGLY.
Jack McShane, a board member at the Catskill Mountain Club, is one the leaders of that Lark in the Park paddle. When McShane visited the Cannonsville on Monday in preparation for the trip, he found a reservoir lakeshore made of mud.
"I surveyed 5 or 6 sites and at minimum it was 300 to 600 yards from where you park to the waters edge and the last 100 or so was often ankle deep mud," he wrote in an email to the Watershed Post. "I believe the reason for the low water level is drought conditions and mandated releases for the benefit of the trout population in the West Branch of the Delaware and human users downstream."
Meanwhile, Friends of the Upper Delaware River, a non-profit advocacy group, is charging that the Cannonsville isn't being drained of enough water.
In a press release the group issued on Tuesday, it attacked the DEP for abruptly cutting off most of the outflow of the Cannonsville at just the time that trout are spawning:
As the critical brown trout spawning season arrives on the upper Delaware River, the government water bureaucracy throttled back the flow out of Cannonsville Reservoir by 90 percent this week—a reckless and irrational act ... If trout spawning has begun, the exposure of the eggs is probably fatal.
The DEP's reservoir system is the source of NYC's drinking water, and the DEP is understandably controlling when it comes to its management. But once you become a "Watercrat," as the FUDR calls the department, you are -- ahem -- damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
Above: View of the Dry Brook Launch on the Cannonsville this week. Photo by Jack McShane.
