‘Impact is tremendous down here’
Businesses that depend on Lower Esopus Creek decry muddy discharges from Ashokan Reservoir
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. » George Murphy says his work as a boat captain on the Lower Esopus Creek is off to a slow start this season because New York City is releasing turbid, muddy water into the creek from the Ashokan Reservoir at the same time fishing enthusiasts are ready to catch herring.
Murphy, who owns Saugertiesbased Hudson River Charters, said herring swim up the Hudson River from the Atlantic Ocean “about the first week in April ... and the creek should be full of herring. I’ve been doing the Catskill Creek the last couple of days, and it’s full of herring. But everybody who’s down [at the Lower Esopus] is not catching a lot of herring.”
The 32-mile Lower Esopus meets the Hudson in Saugerties, and some of the muddy water sent downstream from the reservoir makes
its way into the river. Murphy says it’s visible in the river more than a mile from the junction with the creek.
Murphy, who has been a Saugerties-based boat captain for 15 years, said one possible explanation for the reduced number of catches is the fish “just can’t see” due to the murkiness of the water, or “they are just bypassing the creek.”
Murphy, who charges $425 for a six-hour charter, was not able to do business last year because of the coronavirus pandemic and says the brownness of the creek this year has left potential customers discouraged about getting out onto the water.
New York City has permission from the state to release up to 600 million gallons of turbid water from the Ashokan Reservoir into the creek each day, and the city is seeking approval to continue the process indefinitely. The process keeps the turbid water from reaching the taps of New York City residents and also, according to the city, is necessary to keep the water in the reservoir at a level that won’t result in downstream flooding when sudden increases occur.
Murphy says the muddy discharges come at the expense of local communities much like the city’s construction of the Ashokan Reservoir did in the early 1900s.
“That’s what they did 100 years ago,” he said. “They ruined people . ... This is just business as usual to them.”
The muddy discharges also bother Saugerties Marina owner Casey Currey.
“There is no reason there shouldn’t be a filter on the water that runs down here, and if it were a private entity, you would have to have that because never in a million years would they ever, ever, ever allow that,” he said.
“The impact is tremendous down here,” Currey said. “You get half the boaters. You don’t get as many people who want to go fishing because there’s no fish in the creek.”
Currey said New York City and state officials seem unwilling to acknowledge the impacts of the discharges even though there are obvious examples.
“My brother took a picture of a little baby bass that was all full of mud on the boat ramp,” he said. “... If you ask them (city officials), they’ll say it doesn’t leave any residue, but I see it first hand.”
Adam Bosch, spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the city’s upstate reservoirs, said Monday that the DEP “is required to make these releases. It is not our choice.”
“These releases are required to enhance downstream flood attenuation, as requested by the communities,” Bosch said, adding that he expects a significant reduction in turbid discharges in the next seven to 10 days.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting public comments through June 16 about New York City’s request to continue the discharges. Comments can be emailed to deppermitting@ dec.ny.gov or mailed to Kristen Cady-Poulin, NYS DEC Division of Environmental Permits, 625 Broadway, Albany, N.Y. 12233.