Sky Blue Outfitters supports clean water in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a fly angler’s state. And Rick Nyles is a fly angler – and a darn good one. Rick owns Sky Blue Outfitters in Fleetwood, Penn., and he’s Gold Level Trout Unlimited Business member who has been guiding all over the Keystone State on some of its best waters for 20 years. And Rick is not happy. Oh, he’s happy about the fishing, no doubt about that. And he’s happy with his clients – they’re great. But he’s not happy about the proposed changes to the Clean Water Act and the Waters of the U.S. Rule.

“I am offended that the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency, an entity explicitly charged with protecting the waters of my state and my country, would propose to reverse the 2015 Clean Water Rule," Nyle said. “My business depends on clean water. Many other businesses in Pennsylvania do as well. That clean water supports a recreation industry worth $887 billion annually. Of the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of anglers who have been my guests over the years, not one has asked me to fish in a polluted stream. In fact, they rely on me to know which streams are the cleanest, and therefore the most productive for fishing. They also rely on me to stand up for clean water when it is threatened.”

Rick is passionate about protecting headwaters streams.

It is essential that we allow the Waters of the U.S. Rule and the Clean Water Act to continue to provide these protections," he said. "We have seen the impact of unprotected watersheds in Pennsylvania, and we continue to live with the impacts from long ago. Many of the streams and rivers we fish were once so polluted that they were unfishable. Now, we have a success story in Pennsylvania, because of the Clean Water Act and the Waters of the U.S. rule.”

Rick Nyles strongly opposes the repeal and replacement of a critical rule that impacts us all. If you’d like to stand for clean water too, submit your comments, too. The deadline for comments is April 15, 2019.

— Walt Gasson