Stream Ecology - Rondout Reservoir
About the Hike To see pictures from the hike (click here).
We hiked along the Stone Cabin Brook which is the third largest tributary in the upper Rondout watershed. The brook is located in the Sundown Wild Forest Area on Peekamoose Road (County Road 42), near Grahamsville, NY. The parking lot was located at the following coordinates. You can use http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html to see the spot by punching in the coordinates.
Latitude: 41.90945250508044
Longitude: -74.45371270179749
It was truly a breathtaking stream to hike along with a new waterfall around every corner. John Burroughs, the American naturalist, said this about the Rondout Creek, "My eyes had never before beheld such beauty in a mountain stream." And, "If I were a trout, I should ascend every stream, until I found the Rondout."
Mark Vian, a stream biologist with the NYC DEP Stream Ecology Group and Danny Davis a geologist in the same group led the hike. Mark explained to us how severe storms change the course of streams every few years. Danny talked about the geology of the area and specifically the impact that glaciers had. The primary rock where we were hiking was sandstone and was formed 300 million years ago in broad meandering rivers.
The DEP's Stream Ecology Group maintains a website called CatskillStreams.org with a wealth of information about the streams and ecology of the Rondout Watershed.
Among the wildflowers we saw were Jack in the Pulpits and Trillium.
About the Rondout Reservoir
The reservoir was made possible by the construction of Merriman Dam along Rondout Creek. Construction began in 1937 and ended in 1954, three years after the reservoir began delivering water. It would be the first of four built by the city to satisfy its growing demand in the years after World War II. Three villages – Lackawack, Montela and Eureka – were condemned and flooded in the process. The small settlement of Grahamsville remains in existence just west of the reservoir.
The resulting body of water is a single basin 6.5 miles long,2,052 acres in area and reaches a maximum depth of 175 feet near the dam. Mean depth is 73.8 feet. Elevation is 840 feet above sea level. New York City is at sea level (0 feet elevation) so the water from the reservoir flows to us mainly by gravity via the Delaware Aqueduct.
It holds 49.6 billion gallons,which comes not only from the reservoir's own 95 square-mile watershed but from Cannonsville, Neversink, and Pepacton reservoirs via the Delaware and Neversink tunnels as well. Since those three are in the Delaware River watershed, Rondout is considered by the city's Department of Environmental Protection to be part of the Delaware system despite being firmly within the Hudson River watershed itself.
Combined, the four reservoirs account for 1,012 square miles of watershed and 320.4 billion gallons of capacity, 890 million gallons of which goes to the city daily - 50% of the entire system's capacity. All this water is fed from the Rondout to West Branch Reservoir in Putnam County via the Delaware Aqueduct. The aqueduct continues to the Kensico Reservoir and then the Hillview Reservoir making it the world's longest continuous underground tunnel at 85 miles. The aqueduct, 1,550 feet below ground at one point, and runs 600 feet beneath the Hudson River at Chelsea.
Construction of the Delaware System was begun in March 1937. Its construction was interrupted by WW II. The Delaware System was placed in service in stages. The Delaware Aqueduct was completed in 1944, Neversink Reservoir in 1950, Rondout Reservoir in 1951, Pepacton Reservoir in 1954 and Cannonsville Reservoir in 1967.
Water from the Pepacton, Neversink and Cannonsville Reservoirs is sent to the Rondout Reservoir by gravity via the 25-mile-long East Delaware Tunnel, the 44-mile West Delaware Tunnel and the Neversink Tunnel, which is six miles long.
from Wiki and http://bearsystems.com/Reservoirs/reservoirs.html
We hiked along the Stone Cabin Brook which is the third largest tributary in the upper Rondout watershed. The brook is located in the Sundown Wild Forest Area on Peekamoose Road (County Road 42), near Grahamsville, NY. The parking lot was located at the following coordinates. You can use http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html to see the spot by punching in the coordinates.
Latitude: 41.90945250508044
Longitude: -74.45371270179749
It was truly a breathtaking stream to hike along with a new waterfall around every corner. John Burroughs, the American naturalist, said this about the Rondout Creek, "My eyes had never before beheld such beauty in a mountain stream." And, "If I were a trout, I should ascend every stream, until I found the Rondout."
Mark Vian, a stream biologist with the NYC DEP Stream Ecology Group and Danny Davis a geologist in the same group led the hike. Mark explained to us how severe storms change the course of streams every few years. Danny talked about the geology of the area and specifically the impact that glaciers had. The primary rock where we were hiking was sandstone and was formed 300 million years ago in broad meandering rivers.
The DEP's Stream Ecology Group maintains a website called CatskillStreams.org with a wealth of information about the streams and ecology of the Rondout Watershed.
Among the wildflowers we saw were Jack in the Pulpits and Trillium.
About the Rondout Reservoir
The reservoir was made possible by the construction of Merriman Dam along Rondout Creek. Construction began in 1937 and ended in 1954, three years after the reservoir began delivering water. It would be the first of four built by the city to satisfy its growing demand in the years after World War II. Three villages – Lackawack, Montela and Eureka – were condemned and flooded in the process. The small settlement of Grahamsville remains in existence just west of the reservoir.
The resulting body of water is a single basin 6.5 miles long,2,052 acres in area and reaches a maximum depth of 175 feet near the dam. Mean depth is 73.8 feet. Elevation is 840 feet above sea level. New York City is at sea level (0 feet elevation) so the water from the reservoir flows to us mainly by gravity via the Delaware Aqueduct.
It holds 49.6 billion gallons,which comes not only from the reservoir's own 95 square-mile watershed but from Cannonsville, Neversink, and Pepacton reservoirs via the Delaware and Neversink tunnels as well. Since those three are in the Delaware River watershed, Rondout is considered by the city's Department of Environmental Protection to be part of the Delaware system despite being firmly within the Hudson River watershed itself.
Combined, the four reservoirs account for 1,012 square miles of watershed and 320.4 billion gallons of capacity, 890 million gallons of which goes to the city daily - 50% of the entire system's capacity. All this water is fed from the Rondout to West Branch Reservoir in Putnam County via the Delaware Aqueduct. The aqueduct continues to the Kensico Reservoir and then the Hillview Reservoir making it the world's longest continuous underground tunnel at 85 miles. The aqueduct, 1,550 feet below ground at one point, and runs 600 feet beneath the Hudson River at Chelsea.
Construction of the Delaware System was begun in March 1937. Its construction was interrupted by WW II. The Delaware System was placed in service in stages. The Delaware Aqueduct was completed in 1944, Neversink Reservoir in 1950, Rondout Reservoir in 1951, Pepacton Reservoir in 1954 and Cannonsville Reservoir in 1967.
Water from the Pepacton, Neversink and Cannonsville Reservoirs is sent to the Rondout Reservoir by gravity via the 25-mile-long East Delaware Tunnel, the 44-mile West Delaware Tunnel and the Neversink Tunnel, which is six miles long.
from Wiki and http://bearsystems.com/Reservoirs/reservoirs.html
Article explaining how Boss Tweed owned Bluestone quarries.
"Fortunes In Bluestone" NY Times March 19, 1889
"Fortunes In Bluestone" NY Times March 19, 1889
