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Published on: 4/10/2008
Last Visited: 4/10/2008
The House bills, said Aaron Rubel, president of Clinton Valley Trout Unlimited, allow large-volume withdrawals up to a point where they are predicted to have no harm to cold-water fisheries -- allowing for 14% to 22% of summer low-flows to be withdrawn, depending on stream size.
The Senate bills, he said, allow an average of 25% of summer low-flow to be withdrawn from streams statewide, he said.
"The Senate version would allow three to five times more loss to fish and habitat," he said.
He said the state has made too much of an investment in fisheries to allow that to happen.
"Just 10 years ago, the Clinton River was considered a dead river," he said."Now, we have brown trout holding over in the main stream.
"Later today, 20,000 steelhead are being planted in the main stream of the Clinton," he said.