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Berry City official urges local control after DEC permits fishing tournaments at protected reservoir
Summary
Berry City city manager told the Natural Resources & Energy committee that DEC approved fishing tournaments on the Dix Reservoir without notifying the city, creating avoidable trespass conflicts, policing costs and contamination risks; he urged S.224 to give local officials decision-making authority.
Berry City city manager Sterling Castro told the Natural Resources & Energy committee on Jan. 27 that the city’s Thurmond Dix Reservoir — which supplies Berry City’s drinking water — is at risk from recreational events permitted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) without municipal input.
Castro said the city spends about $2,800,000 annually to operate its water system and that the Dix Reservoir’s treatment plant is a standard facility not designed to remove some contaminants that recreational use can introduce, such as gasoline-related compounds. “We were notified after they had sort of gone down the approval route,” Castro said, describing how DEC issued permits for two tournaments before the city learned about them.
He told…
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