The entire 524-mile state canal system is open, the New York State Canal Corp. announced today.
This year marks the 182nd consecutive navigation season on New York’s canal system.
Boaters are reminded that the corporation’s board has approved the extension of a 2006 pilot program to waive recreational boating tolls for the 2007 navigation season. Pleasure-craft owners will not be required to purchase a pass to cruise on the system during the 2007 season.
Floaty, Oneida County's official watersports mascot, would also like to remind boaters that the canal downstream from New Hartford is contaminated with human feces and sewage, which means a "floating log" warning on this stretch of the canal is something you should take seriously. Thanks to a defective sewage pumping station an average of four million gallons a day of untreated waste flows into the beautiful Mohawk River and hence into the canal system.
Happy Boating!
(Yeah, it's a cheap shot. Worse, it's true. I shed a tear for New Hartford's construction moratorium every time I inhale the rich organic stink of decaying sewage coming off the water.)
