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Rain water is life blood of Youghiogheny businesses
Monday, May 31, 1999 By Lawrence Walsh, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
CONFLUENCE -- Rain is a good thing when you're in the water business.
And Clyde Braun, the resource manager of the Youghiogheny River Lake that meanders across the borders of Fayette and Somerset counties and over the Mason-Dixon Line into Maryland, is in the water business big time.
The lake, which had dropped considerably last fall and winter because of a drought, has filled back up to within a foot of its normal summer pool level of 1,439 feet above sea level.
The lake was created in 1943 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built an earth and stone dam just upstream of Confluence that is 1,610 feet long, 184 feet high and 1,100 feet wide at the base.
It was designed to store the equivalent of 11 inches of precipitation from its 434 square mile watershed. Flood control, navigation and recreation are the top three purposes for which it was built.
Rainfall is the key to its success.
"If we can get regular rainfall, we'll have a good season," Braun said.
To date, the Pittsburgh area has received 16.87 inches of precipitation, 2.27 inches above normal, said Wayne Rumberg, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
Rumberg said the amount of precipitation, which is automatically tabulated by electronic equipment along a runway at Pittsburgh International Airport, was above normal in January, April and May.
"We're in a dry spell now over the Memorial Day weekend, but the precipitation is forecast to be at or above normal."
That's good news for the fishermen and women, boaters, water-skiers, whitewater rafters kayakers and canoeists and river-dependent businesses in Confluence and its downstream neighbor, Ohiopyle.
"It's good to see the water back up," said Linda Pepley, 30, of Johnstown as her husband, David, 36, maneuvered their 24-foot pontoon boat away from the launch area on a recent warm and sunny weekday afternoon. "The water level last fall was about 100 feet from where we're standing."
The Pepleys, who own a beauty shop in Johnstown, said they prefer the Youghiogheny Lake because it isn't as "commercialized" as are other lakes. "This is our second season here and we really enjoy it," she said.
As their 6-year-old son, David, stood in ankle-deep water along the shoreline and flexed his toes in the muddy bottom, his parents checked to make sure they had everything for their midafternoon outing.
"We bring our cooler and grill aboard and grill on the boat," Linda Pepley said.
David Pepley, who likes to fish for bass, said the fishing often is better on weekdays because the lake usually isn't crowded.
Matt and Kim Smith, both 26, of Rockwood, Somerset County, enjoy fishing for smallmouth bass, pike and walleye in the numerous coves and backwater areas of the 16-mile-long, 2,840 acre lake.
Matt Smith, a laborer for a Rockwood manufacturing company, has been going to the lake for the past five years.
"It's a lovely place and it's great for families," said Kim Smith as she picked up 4-year-old daughter, Molly, and placed her in the boat.
Bob Edwards, a co-owner of Confluence Hardware, said a hefty supply of water in the lake and a reliable flow of water downstream is good for local businesses, especially those that cater to people who like to fish, raft, kayak and canoe.
A reliable flow of water also benefits restaurants such as the River's Edge Cafe, Sisters' Cafe, Alice's and the Monterrey, the proprietors of guest houses such as the new Parker House and The Point and bed, and breakfast operations such as the River's Edge and Beverly's.
Anna Marie Yakubisin, who owns and operates the River's Edge Cafe, its bed and breakfast and an antiques store, said the river and the Yough Bike Trail, which now runs from Confluence to McKeesport, draw many of her customers.
The cars, vans and pickup trucks that fill her parking spaces often have kayaks and canoes fastened on top and the wooden bike racks in front of her colonial pink clapboard restaurant are filled on weekends.
In Ohiopyle, 12 miles downstream from Confluence, no water would mean no business for the town's four state-certified commercial rafting companies.
"The river is our life blood," said Mark McCarty, who owns and operates Laurel Highlands River Tours.
McCarty, whose father Ralph was one of the town's whitewater rafting pioneers and whose brother, Mike, also runs a rafting company in Ohiopyle, praised the Corps of Engineers for releasing enough water from the lake on a daily basis to provide a quality rafting experience for his customers.
In addition to the water that drains into the lake from its huge watershed, a utility company in western Maryland releases water at least twice a week that flows into the lake after it has provided an intense river experience for rafters and kayakers.
Clyde Braun, the lake's resource manager, acknowledged that satisfying the water interests of everyone who relies on the lake, especially those who own property and docks along its 38-mile-long shoreline, can be difficult.
"We do the best we can," he said.
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