Low river levels hurt water sports businesses

COLLINSVILLE, CT (WFSB) - With the scarce rainfall & low rivers, a lot of paddle sports businesses have been hurting.

The water in the Farmington River in Collinsville is very low.

It’s the busiest season for water sports and a lot of these companies thrive on higher water, but not this year.

For Collinsville Canoe and Kayak the first half of this summer was rough.

A couple weeks ago, a hydro dam was installed in the Farmington River where they paddle. They said that’s been a lifesaver in their area.

Unfortunately, not all businesses have been that lucky. That has permanently raised their water 3 to 4 feet.

Before the dam was installed, they said a lot of their equipment was getting damaged and broken due to the rocks and low river levels.

They weren’t getting their usual influx of customers and they hope that we get some relief with a good amount of rainfall soon.

“Last year July is crazy high water to the point where we couldn’t rent. Now this summer has been really low, fortunately they were working on the hydroelectric dam and until they finished we were suffering and it was really hard to rent but now that they’ve finished up the dam we have more water than we’ve had in years at a safe level,” said Jack Warner of Collinsville Canoe & Kayak.

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