Proposed rules call for Lake George stream buffers

LAKE GEORGE — The Lake George Park Commission this week released its first regulations that would block development along streams that empty into Lake George basin as part of an effort to stop the 30-year decline in the quality of the lake’s water.

The 32-mile-long lake’s water remains at a “AA-special” rating but its clarity continues to be diminished, in part at least by tainted runoff from the more than 150 streams in the lake’s watershed.

The regulations propose a 100-foot vegetative buffer — preferably native forest — be retained on each side of lake tributary streams when the land is developed.

The proposed regulations, which have been in the development and discussion stages for more than a year, would require property owners to retain the natural buffers when developing their land near lake streams.

Michael P. White, executive director of the Lake George Park Commission, said Tuesday the commission is attempting to maintain a balance between the much-needed stream buffer regulations and the limitations the new regulations will impose on private property around the lake.

“We think we have done that,” White said.

The primary purpose of the regulation is to “buffer the flow of sediments, contaminants and nutrients into the lake, which would otherwise reduce water quality,” according to a commission statement.

The commission is expected to approve a draft generic environmental impact statement that includes the new regulations later this month and then hold a public comment period on the regulations ending in mid-March.

The commission could adopt some form of the stream buffer laws this spring or early summer.

“Anyone that says the LGPC [Lake George Park Commission] is settled on a specific outcome is dead wrong,” said Bruce E. Young, commission chairman. “We invite a productive debate and are ready to make improvements to the regulations where warranted,” Young said in a statement.

White said the deterioration of Lake George water quality has been happening since the 1970s. He said the evidence of this downward trend can be seen in the large silt deltas at the mouth of streams emptying into the lake and the growth of the invasive Eurasian milfoil aquatic weeds near these deltas.

The Lake George Waterkeeper, which is a separate entity from the Lake George Park Commission, reported algae blooms in 26 locations on the lake over the summer of 2008.

One of these was an unusually extensive algae bloom in July in Bolton Bay on the west side of Lake George.

One of the things Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky suggested was more and better control of pollutants such as lawn fertilizers, lawn debris and other nutrients getting into the streams that flow into Lake George.

Peter Bauer, executive director for the environmental watchdog organization The Fund for Lake George, said Tuesday he applauded the proposed stream buffer regulations.

“Overall we are very pleased, after a 20-year wait, we finally see some draft regulations to protect the stream corridors,” Bauer said.

But Bauer said the proposed regulations aren’t strong enough. The Fund for Lake George would like to see 150-foot buffers, rather than the proposed 100-foot buffers, on each side of a lake stream.

The organization also wants to see at least a 50-foot “no cut zone” in the land closest to the stream.

The proposed lake commission regulations call for stronger controls on the 50-foot buffer closest to the stream but, according to Bauer, would allow some limited cutting in this zone.

The Fund for Lake George also opposes the plan to allow local governments around the lake — the towns that border the lake — to administer and enforce the stream buffer regulations.

Bauer said the Fund feels that the Lake George Park Commission, an arm of state government, should administer and enforce the regulations. However, a commission statement on the new regulations indicates that the commission is, indeed, prepared to enforce the new stream buffer regulations around the lake if cooperative agreements with local governments don’t prove feasible.

Bauer said if the commission needs more money to do this it could raise the fees it charges for boat and dock permits on the lake. The boat and dock permit fees are a main source of the commission’s income.

Bauer said the proposed stream buffer regulations are the first regulations of their kind in the Adirondack Park.

“We advocate that these regulations are strengthened over the next 60 to 90 days, not weakened,” Bauer said.

The environmental impact statement for the regulations was prepared by the Center for Watershed Protection with offices in Ellicott, Md. The statement and proposed regulations, which cost $50,000 to produce, were then discussed at length and amended by the nine-member commission and its staff, according to White.

The full impact statement and related information can be viewed and downloaded by going to the commission Web site: www.lgpc.state.ny.us.