This is a permitted release?!

Last week, my friend and I were walking the river here in town.  Late afternoon, the temperatures were warm, the light had that special fresh glow that can only be spring, and birdsong surrounded.  The afternoon was one that almost made one forget the issues of the day.  He was fishing and I was absently checking out a pair of common mergansers about 75 feet away when he yelled that the water was really warm.  Apparently, last weekend he was fishing while freezing his feet off (Can I help it if the man fishes in sandals?) and today, it was comfortably warm.

The week prior had been one of those disturbingly warm spring weeks that  makes me think there is definite proof to climate change.  My household thermometer showed 91 degrees F in the sun one day and it hadn't rained in over two weeks.  So, I supposed it was feasible that this week would have warmer water temperatures as I reached down to flick a tick off my leg and into the water.  I felt sorry for the trout as with the unseasonably warm temperatures, the mergansers, my friend fishing (even though he is a catch and release guy), and the low water, it was a tough week all around.  Then he said the river was rising.

Rising?!  Moving quickly and frightening the birds out of their feathers, I moved toward him and noticed that the river was flowing much faster.  I turned and walked upstream to where a smaller brook met and melted into the larger river.  The smaller brook was running thin and sparse, but the main branch was oddly enthusiastic.

Time for a road trip.  We followed the river upstream to another pond where the water was flowing under, over and around a dam. WTF?!  One guy was out with a cam corder.  The wetlands nearby were running high and you could only see the tips of the drowning skunk cabbage. We took a quick detour since, by now, I was curious as to what the hell was going on and my enforcement mentality was taking over...much to my eventual chagrin.

I had a hunch that it was a dam release or beaver dam break (with the help of some neanderthals) on private property.  I took some photographs out of habit.  We circled the large rural block and my hunch was confirmed.  Dry wetland hummocks at one end of the site; gushing water at the other.  The water was definitely coming from this site.  Of course, it was private property and we couldn't enter, though a couple of lies came to mind to tell the neighbors, but I held off...probably because my friend was with me.  The good news was that I had been on that property before for work (much to the owners' chagrin) and I knew that property well.

My friend the fisherman was irritated.  Why would someone release all this water now during near drought-like conditions, warm weather, and in the spring when the rivers were just stocked?  I agreed but was much less surprised.  My friend is an optimist and while I admire his outlook, I obviously don't share it.  Why?  Because I know why someone would release all this water now.  Because they can, of course.  Why think of anyone else, of anyTHING else but themselves?  People damage the environment when it's convenient for them, when they're bored, when they're choosing not think, when they don't care, when no one is looking. It's what they are. Calling them pond scum would offend pond scum.  Really. 

My friend started making a list of all the people who should be contacted and told me to get on it assuming (erroneously it proved) that my previous work experience would give my report more credence (and leave him comfortably out of it).  I left my last job because I had become so occluded about the nature of mankind that I was nearly impossible to live with. (I know, you're shocked, shocked.)  I hated looking at someone and thinking, "How many seconds til the lies start?" 

Anyway, I left.  Now, my friend was asking me to dive in...again.

So, of course, imbecile that I am, I dove.  First, I was told that it was probably road work from the next town over.  Then I was told it was a permitted release.  Then I was told that the Inland Wetlands Commission had no jurisdiction here.  Then, I was told photographs weren't conclusive of a dam break.  Then, I got pissed off.  So, I called the next town over and checked with the state DEP.  No and yes.

No, the next town hadn't done anything.  Yes, state Dam Safety had contacted the property owner last year in the late fall and told them to remove vegetation and the beaver dam as soon as possible.  So, the property owner waited until a hot spring with drought-like conditions and a trout release the previous week to do the work.  Brilliant. 

I got the usual polite thank you and did I need anything else from the state?  I could think of one or two things but while I was mentally reigning in a particular thought, I heard from the state that it's too expensive for property owners to hire a consultant (or apparently to educate themselves) before doing the work.  Too expensive to hire a professional?  If it's too expensive to care for a dam properly, maybe the property owners shouldn't own a dam?  (Um, why does he need a huge pond anyway?  Let it revert to wetland..it's cheaper!)  Maybe paupers and people with prehistoric cranial cavities shouldn't be in charge of millions of gallons of water.  Maybe.

Mentally bashing my head against the proverbial brick wall, I suggested adding guidance to their letters and even, brace yourself, offered to help write up any guidance they might want to offer property owners in the future.  I received another polite thank you and to sum up, yes, this was a permitted release. 

This is a permitted release?!  If this is a permitted release and this (choose your own adjective) property owner can drain a wetland anytime he wants (it's dam/n maintenance) with no thought to fish, benthic macroinvertebrates, wildlife, birds, or heaven forbid, downstream users like kids playing in the stream...then where is the protection of the environment? or downstream users?  Where did the "protection" go?  Down the damn stream.