Stormwater Mix Fouls Lake’s Southern Waters
By Brian Nearing, Albany Times Union, N.Y.
Dec. 2–BOLTON LANDING — Lake George’s southern waters, where each year more new residences dot hills and shore, are becoming more polluted.
Phosphorus, commonly found in fertilizers and septic waste, is part of the stormwater mix that is fueling worsening problems.
More than 40 percent of phosphorus entering the water comes from just 5 percent of the land that is developed in 190 square miles of Warren, Washington and Essex counties that drain into the lake.
Stormwater runoff is the “largest controllable source of pollutants,” said Lawrence Eichler, a research scientist at the Darrin Fresh Water Institute. The affiliate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has studied the lake since 1967.
Once pollution is in, it is slow to leave. It takes eight years for water that enters the 32-mile lake at Lake George village to reach the northern outlet at the LaChute River in Ticonderoga.
Phosphorus feeds more than lush lawns. It also fuels algae growth, which reduces the lake’s legendary clarity and consumes oxygen from water around Diamond Island, the southernmost of five lake-bottom basins.
Each basin is a bathtublike depression at the bottom that keeps water from easily mixing between basins. Heading north, other basins are around Dome Island, French Point at the mouth of the narrows, Sabbath Day Point and Hague.
Within Caldwell Basin, larger algae blooms are expanding an oxygen-starved zone that inhibits aquatic life, Eichler said.
Measurements taken in 1997, 2001 and 2006 show oxygen levels are continuing to drop.
Leaks from septic systems also foul the lake. More than one-quarter of water samples taken from storm runoff have coliform bacteria levels that exceed state swimming standards. In lake water, 7 percent of samples exceeded the standard.
Road salt levels in the lake have more than doubled in 20 years. If that continues for several decades, water could become risky for people with high blood pressure to drink, Eichler said.
State transportation officials limit salt use, said state Transportation Department spokesman Pete Van Keuren.
Each year, state crews put down between 1,800 and 2,000 tons of salt on routes 9 and 9N, the major highways near the lake, he said.
“It’s a balancing act. If we use too little, it could be a safety issue,” Van Keuren said.
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