The Animals Are Gonna Die Again For No Reason

The animals that are dying are of the silent type: turtles, fish, mussels, snakes, and large snails. They don't scream when they are dying. If they were capable of setting up a howl, many passersby would come running to the edge of the canal to see what the racket was, and in all probability quite a few of them would do as we do: get in there and try to save them.

Because of this it's certainly unpleasant to walk, jog or bike the canal after summer. It's painful to see what lies below. Driving from New Hope up past Upper Black Eddy surveying the canal from the road, one sees that the entire canal bed is dry, meaning that literally millions of creatures who were swept into the canal from the north died. This has been going on for 30 plus years. The canal has been filled then allowed to dry out, refilled and allowed to dry out again and again. That's certainly a tremendous amount of destruction when it comes to the various species of water animals that have inhabited it. How many times does this need to be repeated? 

What exactly is going on, and why does it appear that the powers-that-be don't care?

A lot of the particulars are a wornout story for anyone who has been following the canal saga through the years. The portion of the Delaware Canal that runs between the city of Easton, PA. to New Hope, PA is especially problematic. It has been compromised both by way of disuse and neglect through the years and flood damage. It has numerous leaks, aqueduct problems, and lock disrepair. But what is even more interesting is the fact that the entire canal was problematic from its inception.

The 60 mile long canal was built along the west bank of the Delaware River from navigable water at Bristol, to Easton, where it connected with the Lehigh Navigation. It employed 23 lift locks, a guard lock, a tide lock and nine aqueducts to climb 165 feet to Easton's elevation. Unfortunately, the contractors hired by the Commonwealth to construct the Delaware Canal proved to be incompetent, and when opened in 1832, the waterway leaked so badly that it was soon shut down. (Extracted from The National CanalMuseum/http://www.canals.org/educators/curriculum/delaware_canal) 

On top of the continuous disuse and disrepair, there is a broken pump at the lock at Center Bridge, PA.:

The Pennsylvania Canal Commissioners then asked Josiah White, co-founder of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to rebuild the Delaware Division...White found it necessary to design a waterwheel pumping device built near New Hope to supply additional water for the lower sections of the Canal. (Extracted from The National Canal Museum/http://www.canals.org/educators/curriculum/delaware_canal) 

Therefore a pump was always needed to fill the section of the canal between Center Bridge and New Hope with water. An broken electric pump has been in place for years and years. But the only reason for attempting to keep this particular area of the canal filled is for the sake of appearances and the benefit of the mule barge operation.

Tug-of-War Over Mule Barge Rides

To the Editor: News of the proposed closing of the Delaware River Canal Boat Co.'s mule barge operation in New Hope is devastating. The negative impact this would have on the small community of New Hope, as well as the broader impact on tourism for the whole of Bucks County, is immense. Consider the promotional material for our region which explicitly touts this unique attraction; the historic mule-barge legacy and that of the Delaware Canal and its towpath are tied irrevocably. We, the community, cannot simply turn our backs on the demise of the mule barge concession.(The Intelligencer, December 31, 2007; http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1405732381.html)

The mule barge might very well have gone bankrupt, not because of problems with the canal but because of the following interesting tidbit. The original owner of the mule barge was removed and was replaced surreptitiously by The Friends of The Delaware Canal. This last owner was just a tiny bit corrupt:

New Hope Boat & Navigation Corporation charged in Bucks County case involving theft of more than $56,000 of state funds. The owners of a Bucks County company, New Hope Boat & Navigation Corporation, have been charged with scheming to keep more than $56,000 which should have been paid to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Attorney General Tom Corbett said the money was supposed to be paid to the Commonwealth as part of a 10-year contract for the operation of historic canal boat rides in the Delaware Canal State Park, located in Bucks County. (From The Pennsylvania Attorney General; http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/press.aspx?id=1133)

Other canals all over the world have been rehabilitated.

It's against the law to kill threatened species, and it's just plain cruel to repetitively year after year kill the silent and the helpless. Someone must be responsible for this, and truth be told it is no secret: through the mismanagement of funds, the cruel irresponsibility of some individuals who call themselves friends, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the State of Pennsylvania, this historical landmark, our Delaware Canal, has become a killing zone and a sham.  Last year when the headgates at Easton were opened with much celebration, the waters rushed in from the north bringing with it thousands of animal victims. Now the canal in many places is completely dry and dead. 

The canal has never been repaired properly and leaks tremendously from Bridge #2 around the boyscout camp all the way down to River Road at New Hope, the pump at Center Bridge is broken, an inferior model that has broken numerous times and can't be run in winter anyway. And we're told nothing can be done: the State's hands are tied.  There are some individuals in New Hope, outside of the DCNR, who issue orders and everyone must step up to bat according to their wishes. They have money to fix the problems, but they never do.  They spare not a dime for the proper reparation of the canal even after FEMA gave $40 million dollars for cleanup after the floods. Instead, some of the paths alongside the canal were repaired and red clay placed back on them.   

No money for the animals, just for appearances: the towpath, the mule barge, the treacherous canal waters that are allowed to recede completely each autumn leaving small pools of mud and an inch or two of water where the fish lie suffocating, the turtles quickly bury themselves to hibernate but will never make it until summer because there is no water to cover and protect them from the winter, the giant snails that await the water until the 85-105 degree summers cause them to rot.

There is a solution. Other canals all over the world have been rehabilitated. This canal, slated to open again in spring must not be refilled. Not until it is fixed once and for all. The killing must not be allowed to continue.  

These are the fish that have been dislodged from the mud where they died last fall 2010 now that the snow is melting in the canal bed. 

We are here to tell you most of the real facts behind the canal travesty. Everyone appears so confused and misinformed as to why the canal remains in a deplorable state, an eyesore and an incomprehensible mess. People talk and talk about it amongst themselves and remain completely confused. This is mainly because they are frustrated because no where has it been published as to why it is devoid of water and instead filled with the little floating bodies of dead animals, flotsam and jetsam.: flotsam and jetsam consisting of bottles, discarded beer cans, construction debris, plastic bags and cigarette butts and a host of garbage that never gets cleaned up.

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Wasteland

A PLEA FOR HELP

Did you know that every year in our backyard, in the Delaware Canal thousands and thousands of animals are dying? Wildlife, some of it endangered, are being murdered purposely. We are talking about turtles, fish, mussels, snails, snakes, frogs, toads and a host of plants and other biological organisms that all make up an ecologically diverse and importantly delicate ecosystem. Two years ago a few red-bellied sliders were seen trapped by the concrete ledge just past Ferry Street in New Hope, and this year one of us buried another floating on its back under the Mechanic Street Bridge. None of these died of natural causes. For the past three years several of us have tried with water-filled pails and wheelbarrows and pickup trucks to save various species of fish, snails and their offspring by running them over to the Delaware River and freeing them. But we don't make even a dent in the numbers that die. You didn't know this, did you? Now you do!