Dried up Lake Hopatcong and O'Connor's prized boat
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection officials have told boaters and merchants upset over a draw down of Lake Hopatcong to cry into the state’s largest lake if they’re so worried about low water levels.
“There’s a lot of people shedding tears over not being able to get their 42-foot power boats onto the lake so they can validate themselves,” DEP Commissioner Mark Mauriello said. “We’re giving those boaters and anyone else who’s all bunched up over the lowered lake levels some practical advice: Cry me a river. Or, in this case, a lake.”
Lake Hopatcong is down to its lowest level in more than 20 years. Boaters, marina owners and lake businesses blame state officials, who have refused to close a dam on the lake that feeds the Musconetcong River. The state says an unusually dry stretch earlier this year has caused the lake to be several feet lower than normal.
The issue has prevented many boaters from being able to launch their vessels either from the shore or docks. But Mauriello and his staff have concluded that if each of the hundreds of complainers spends just a few hours each day crying into the lake, water levels should be back to normal by Oct. 17.
“That still gives boaters at least several weeks to get out there, drink lots of beer, collide with each other and stationary docks, and pollute one of the state’s best natural resources,” the commissioner said.
But boater Sean O’Connor, who described himself as an amateur limnologist, said while the tears would probably raise the lake level, their saltiness would turn the freshwater Lake Hopatcong into a brackish stew.
“I’m not really bothered by the fact that this will result in a fish kill residents all the way in Cape May will be able to smell,” the Rockaway resident said. “Just as long as I can finally get my 110-foot Overmarine Mangusta power yacht with twin 725-horsepower engines out on that lake and go full throttle for 2 seconds before reaching the other shore, I’m good.”
