|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||
The Greater Boston Chapter and the MA/RI Council both took positions that will improve trout and salmon habitat in rivers and streams throughout the state. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reviews its water quality standards every three years. This process allows groups, such as Trout Unlimited to provide comments on changes and updates made to those standards. The Chapter and the Council requested DEP to modify its regulations to offer improved minimum stream flows, and improve the definition for temperatures for cold water fisheries.
The overall changes proposed by DEP will offer greater protection for coldwater resources. The Chapter and Council supported these changes in general. They asked DEP to make even further changes in other critical areas. Growth in the rural areas of the state is putting pressure on the water levels of rivers and streams. The DEP regulations attempt to address the situation, providing protection for the rivers and the aquatic life dependent on cold, consistently flowing water.
The Greater Boston Chapter also requested that DEP adopt the Division of Fish and Wildlife's definition of a coldwater stream. If trout are found in a river or stream in the state, it considers that body to be a coldwater resource. However, DEP requires an additional step. Under DEP's current system, proof must be provided to show the temperature of the river or stream stays consistently cold enough over the year to support trout or salmon.
This system overlooks the fact that trout and salmon will use brooks or streams at certain times of the year, and maybe not at others, when the water is too warm. It also overlooks the fact that within a certain stream, there can be springs or seeps that will provide water that is colder in the summer and warmer in the winter, providing a place of refuge for trout and salmon.
MA/RI Council Chairman Gene Chague prepared the Council's comments, with the assistance of Kirt Mayland, a TU National staff person working in New England solely on water quality issues in the region. Peter Schilling prepared the Chapter's comments.
For copies of either, contact Gene Chague at jgchague@hotmail.com or Peter Schilling at PMACDS@aol.com.