- HANCOCK, N.Y. - U.S. trout
fishermen converged on East Coast mountain streams for the new season last
week only to discover a drought that water authorities fear could become
a national disaster this summer.
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- As the United States spent the winter worrying about
terrorism and recession, few people noticed it was neither raining nor
snowing.
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- The result of a very dry winter is that at least 57
rivers
on the East Coast and the Great Plains are running at record lows when
they should be in spring spate. Reservoirs supplying the cities of the
Atlantic Seaboard, including New York and Philadelphia, are only half
full.
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- Dozens of local authorities have already banned garden
hoses, car washing and recreational water use. Last week, New York declared
emergency restrictions, turned off the fountains in Manhattan and suspended
street-washing.
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- Montana was declared a drought disaster area, allowing
the state to appeal for emergency federal funds for farmers even before
the summer wheat season begins.
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- Many people have failed to take heed of the threat, said
Jeff Ryan of the New York environmental protection department.
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- "The water crisis isn't on the horizon -- it's
already
here," he said. "People don't seem to realize it."
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- Conrad Lautenbacher, the administrator of the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, said, "On the East
Coast,
we're experiencing the most severe drought on record."
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- Hundreds of fishermen who flocked last week to New York's
Catskill Mountains found rivers reduced to pools. Dave Fisher, his waders
wet only to his calves, could scarcely believe his luck as he pulled a
1.8-kilogram trout from a weir pool below the Cannonsville reservoir, one
of a group of local lakes supplying water to New York, 225 kilometres
away.
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- "Normally, the water would be running so deep in
the spring, you could hardly get in here," he said. "But I've
found this pool full of fish." James Serio, a local fishing guide,
real estate agent and the executive director of the Delaware River
Foundation,
said the fish had nowhere else to go because the water had fallen so
low.
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- "There is going to be a severe fish kill unless
drastic steps are taken. The groundwater is down: For two years, we've
been at least 12 inches low on the 45 inches of rain we need."
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- Water authorities say the plight of the trout stream
may be the start of a bigger problem that could soon affect tens of
millions
of Americans.
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- In Maine, 1,000 private wells have already run dry after
the driest winter in 108 years, while in Idaho, the potato crop is under
threat. Farmers have no water for irrigation because the snowmelt feeding
the Snake River is 20% below normal.
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- To the south, the melt is 40% below normal in the
mountain
basin feeding the Colorado River, which supplies most of the water for
Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
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- "If things don't change, what we are going to see
on the news this summer is fires," said Reagan Waskom, a water
resource
specialist at Colorado State University.
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- There are already reports of the first forest fire of
the year raging in New Mexico.
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- The last serious drought was in 1988, when corn crops
failed in Illinois and Kansas, riverboats ran aground on mud banks in the
Mississippi, and Yellowstone Park burned in a forest fire so fierce it
destroyed roots along with branches.
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- While some climatologists point to established cycles
of drought and plenty, others say global warming trends are changing
weather
patterns.
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- Fishermen in the Catskills have discovered another factor
behind the water crisis: politics. Water has always been a resource to
be traded and fought over in the United States and a 50-year dispute lies
behind half-empty reservoirs and trickling rivers.
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- Above the Catskill reservoirs last week, the streams
were running with water from sudden heavy rains over the region during
March. Below the lakes, however, the rivers most famous for trout were
dry. New York was grabbing all the water, infuriating locals such as Mr.
Serio. His businesses and the local economy depend on the trout.
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- City officials say they have no choice. Only a month
ago, the Cannonsville reservoir was down to just 8% of capacity.
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- Mr. Serio disagrees. "Bad management of the water,
and the arrogance of New York City to the state that surrounds it, is a
major factor in the problem," he said."It's outrageous that they
ruin our rivers while millions upon millions of gallons are simply
wasted."
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- Up to a third of the water piped to New York never gets
there because of leaks in the old wooden aqueducts.
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- Statistics illustrate New Yorkers' appetite for water.
European cities consume 110 to 150 litres per person a day, compared with
200 litres for Boston and 375 litres for Los Angeles. New York's water
consumption is 600 litres per person.
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- http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?f=/stories/20020409/58
4527.html
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