Trout Unlimited has reached out to the board of Candlewood Valley TU, asking for your support of an important advocacy issue on the Farmington River. Members of the Farmington Valley TU Chapter have been closely engaged and monitoring the severe challenges facing the Farmington, due to insufficient flow management from the reservoir.
Please see below for detailed instruction on exactly how you can take just a few moments to draft a powerful statement to our local legislators. We are urging their consideration of the bills being presented, to establish a baseline commitment for flow management of the West Branch of the Farmington. Time is of the essence, please act today!
** Call to Action Steps **
Create a new email
Add to the Subject line: "Support for the proposed legislation to improve the Upper Farmington River Flow"
Add the email addresses of the four leaders of the State Senate and House Environment Committee listed below to the "To:" section of your email. Joseph.Gresko@cga.ct.gov, Rick.Lopes@cga.ct.gov, Patrick.Callahan@housegop.ct.gov, Stephen.Harding@cga.ct.gov
Add FVTU as a CC in the message to allow us to track the support: Carl.FVTU@gmail.com
Copy the text below into the body of your new email. Make sure to enter your name and the town you live in your signature line.
Representative Joseph Gresko, Chairperson
Senator Rick Lopes, Chairperson
Senator Stephen Harding, Ranking Member
Representative Patrick Callahan, Ranking Member
Environment Committee
Room 3200
Legislative Office Building
Hartford, Connecticut 06106
Please raise for a public hearing two bills that have been proposed to the Environment Committee to address erratic flows in the Upper Farmington River. This nationally renowned and federally-designated Wild and Scenic River begins below the MDC’s Goodwin Dam in Hartland and flows for 15 miles through Barkhamsted, New Hartford, and Collinsville (Canton). Less than two miles upriver of this dam is the Colebrook River Dam which is a flood control dam owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Currently, the USACE will only release (or hold back releases) when requested to do so by the MDC.
The first bill requires the MDC to make requests for releases from the Colebrook River Dam, as necessary, to maintain the flow of water in the West Branch of the Farmington River at or above a rate determined to be a sufficient minimum flow rate by DEEP.
The second bill directs DEEP to oversee an update to the Farmington River Instream Flow Study last completed in 1992, which is linked here: http://www.farmingtonriver.org/application/files/9814/7699/4131/FmgtnRiverInstreamFlowStudySum.pdf
Updating this study will provide information to determine the best flow regime for the Upper Farmington River to support its ecological health and recreational flows in light of changes in climate, as well as recent changes to state and pending changes to federal regulations governing the water in Colebrook River Reservoir.
Thank you for considering these two bills.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Town