(AP) At 464 miles, the Susquehanna River is the longest river in the eastern United States. Its 27,000-plus miles of watershed is the 16th largest in the country and it is one of the oldest existing river systems in the world.
But let it be known, the “Susky“ is sick.
Earlier this month the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission called on boaters and anglers who use the river to contact their members of Congress for action to fix the river.
The PFBC, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and two other concerned citizens’ groups — American Rivera and PennFuture — rallied to voice concern after the Pennsylvannia Department of Environmental Protection left the Susquehanna off its 2012 report to the federal Environmental Protection Agency of the state’s impaired waters.
In his recent annual report to the House Game and Fisheries Committee, PFBC executive director John Arway said his agency’s highest profile issue is the ongoing state of the smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna.
Arway told the committee:
“Once considered a world-class bass fishery, the Susquehanna River continued to be plagued with disease in 2012 that is killing young smallmouth bass for almost a decade and has recently resulted in unsightly lesions and open sores in adult bass.
“Throughout 2012, the commission publicly made the case that the Department of Environmental Protection needs to acknowledge the facts and add the river to the federal list of impaired waters. Adding the Susquehanna River to the list as a ’high priority’ impaired water would trigger a two-year timeline under federal EPA regulations for DEP to develop a comprehensive plan to clean up the river.”
“Sadly,” Arway told the committee, “the DEP did not list the Susquehanna as an impaired river in its January report.”
In an earlier report on the condition of the river, the PFBC listed the following evidence the river is “sick” and needs help:
Data reveal that minimum daily dissolved oxygen concentrations and pH fail to meet federal and state established criteria for the protected use of warm water fisheries. Failure to meet thee criteria stresses young-of-year smallmouth bass, causing them to get sick and die.
Dissolved phosphorus levels are increasing at exponential rates, causing large and unprecedented harmful blooms of nuisance algae, which deplete oxygen from the river’s water.
Scientific studies document smallmouth bass populations have been steadily declining since the early 2000s, according to data supported by countless angler claims of diminishing populations. Many guides who once made their living guiding for smallmouth can no longer book trips due to the decreased quality of the fishery.
Gross lesions and disease are decimating the young-of-year smallmouth bass, resulting in extremely poor survival from one year to the next. The river has not experienced a successful year class of smallmouth since 2005.
The Susquehanna has a high incidence of inter-sex condition — male fish having female cells or the precursors of female cells.
Enter concerns for the Chesapeake Bay, which according to the bay foundation was formed some 12,000 years ago when the glaciers melted and flooded the Susquehanna River valley.
Concern for the Bay focuses on a 98-mile stretch of the river, from Sunbury to the Maryland atate line. The CBF says the specific conditions have been found nowhere else “but this 98-mile stretch of the Susquehanna”
While 50 major tributaries feed the Bay every day, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York and James, the Susquehanna is where the Bay starts. The Susquehanna provides the Bay with half of its water and, as we know, “Everything flows downstream.”
Everyone in the watershed benefits from a healthy river through stronger economies, protected human health and recreational opportunities. A vital Susquehanna River is important to all.
Pa. Fish and Boat Commission voices concerns about health of the Susquehanna