Summer Flows: Delaware River System

[Lackcf12]

With the Delaware aqueduct repairs planned for October of this year, the Cannonsville and Pepacton reservoirs will need to be drained below historical summer levels. From everything that I have read, this means high releases on the WB and EB of the Delaware through the summer months starting June 1st. This could present unique summer opportunities for float fisherman, but also challenges/minimal fishing for your average wader pending on what “high releases” mean. Does anyone have any more info on what we may see for base flows this summer?!

 

[krayfish2]

I read on the DEC site, the repairs are October through March and that is when you would see the normal diversion added to the release.
I would expect additional water to be sent through the system to Ashokan (or wherever it goes). A couple of months with additional water would be nice but.......fixing the aqueduct system and being able to get and additional 500-700 CFS released on each river May through August is a much more exciting possibility.

 

[Lackcf12]

I have heard that flows could push anywhere from 1000 to 2000 cfs through the summer on both rivers in preparation to lower the reservoirs, but that is all hearsay with no official documentation to back it up. If true, great for the health of the system and for float fisherman, but would basically eliminate wading opportunities. 500-700 cfs would be ideal for wade fishermen, but guess we’ll have to wait and see!

 

[krayfish2]

What I was getting at is that once the aqueduct is repaired, both of these lakes could run over 1,000 CFS all summer long. The amount of lost water to be saved from the repairs is mind blowing.

Then you face the problem of.... Is 1,000 CFS on the east good during the summer? It's a much shorter journey for cold water to come down the West and reach/cool the main stem. Instead of having 400 CFS of 82° water coming out of the East, you might have 1100 CFS of 78° water. Does that hurt the main stem? Does it shorten the overall length of trout water below town? All good questions and I don't have answers. It would definitely extend the summer range on the east well below Fishes Eddy like it used to be years ago.

It will be interesting to see how this project pans out and how the future hydro project at cannonsville impacts that waterway.

 

[Lackcf12]

Post repairs, if you could release 1,000 cfs all summer long from Pepacton there would definitely be a drop in temperature of the EB flows entering the main… assuming summer trib flows and ambient temperatures don’t see major increases from the historical.

 

[vcregular]

If anyone had a crystal ball on how this plays out I would be interested in checking it out. Fact is, no one has a clue right now how this will go. Did they say what they want to pull the reservoirs to? What percent of full? We all know what happens to the water that gets released when the reservoirs get low. I am not optimistic that any of this will make for better fishing but rather just another bump in the road that will need to get navigated.

 

[Lackcf12]

From the last Delaware River Basin Commission meeting on 3/22, the DEC provided figures that show the Pepacton reservoir getting down to 74% and Cannonsville reservoir getting down to 60% by October 1st… will this actually happen? Who knows. See the article below for more info!

Aqueduct repairs

 

[krayfish2]

60% by October 1 for Cannonsville is no problem. It might be there before August 30. Pepacton will hinge on how much gets shuffled off to other impoundments. Unless it's a wet summer, I don't see it making much of a difference. I will hope for a wet summer and would gladly take an additional 500 cfs from each during September. That would be nice