ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
REMIND VOTERS OF
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ON NOV. 6 BALLOT
Statewide Vote Would Authorize a Small Adirondack Hamlet to Use
Forest Preserve to Obtain Save Drinking Water; Deal Would
Increase Forest Preserve
Released, Friday, November 2,
2007
For more information:
David Gibson, Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks,
518-377-1452, x-301
Scott M. Lorey, Adirondack Council, 518-432-1770
William Cooke, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, 518-461-9947
John Collins, Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks,
518-251-4257, x-13
ALBANY, N.Y. – The Association
for the Protection of the Adirondacks, the Adirondack Council,
Citizens Campaign for the Environment and the Residents’
Committee to Protect the Adirondacks are informing the public
about a Constitutional Amendment that will be presented to all
state voters at the November 6 general election.
The organizations are the leading
environmental advocacy groups in the Adirondack Park and staunch
defenders of the “Forever Wild” clause of the NYS Constitution
(Article 14, Section 1). All have agreed that the amendment would
not harm the Park’s public lands, but would allow a small
community to survive by replacing its defunct reservoir with
safe, drilled drinking water wells.
In exchange for taking one acre
of state land for its wells, the town will give back 12 acres
of forest, which would be added to the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
The community of Raquette Lake
had a viable and perfectly legal water supply reservoir located
on the public Forest Preserve. However, the US Environmental
Protection Agency ordered all towns with surface water supplies,
such as a river or a lake, to treat or filter their water before
piping it to people’s homes. That’s when the issue
arose in the mid 1990s.
The Town of Long Lake, where
Raquette Lake is located, tried filtering the reservoir water,
but high levels of organic material clogged the filters long
before they were due to be replaced. With fewer than 1,000 town
residents, the price of filtration was just too high. The town
then tried the other option, which is chlorination. But the chlorine
reacted with the organic sediments and created volatile organic
compounds, including known and suspected carcinogens.
At that point, the NYS Department
of Health declared an emergency. The State Emergency Management
office sent a tanker truck with potable water to the community
and the town asked the Department of Environmental Conservation’s
permission to drill wells on the Forest Preserve.
The hamlet’s reservoir has
been built under the authority of a 1913 Constitutional Amendment,
which created Article 14, Section 2 of the Constitution. It allowed
up to 3 percent of the Forest Preserve to be set aside for drinking
water reservoirs. But it didn’t mention drilled wells, only
reservoirs. In effect, Article XIV of the NYS Constitution does
not authorize drilled wells on the publicly-owned Forest Preserve.
After the Town completed an unsuccessful
search for suitable private land on which wells could be installed,
DEC reluctantly granted the town permission to drill two wells
on “forever wild” Forest Preserve next to the reservoir.
After much debate and thought,
the Adirondack Council, Association for the Protection of the
Adirondacks, Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks
and Citizens Campaign for the Environment agreed to support the
plan, as long as the town sought a Constitutional Amendment to
legalize the wells.
“Generally, this would constitute
a trespass on the Forest Preserve. If this had been a private
company opening a bottling plant, or some other commercial project,
we would have had to challenge that in court,” said David
Gibson, The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks’
Executive Director. “But this case is different. This
was a public health issue and one quite easily resolved through
a focused and site-specific land exchange.”
“Rather than suing to prevent
the installation until the amendment could be considered by the
voters, we laid aside our right to sue and vowed to assist the
town in gaining approval for a land swap,” said Adirondack
Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. “We have
no quarrel with the location of the wells. Not one tree was cut
to drill them next to the existing reservoir.”
The amendment passed both houses
of the NYS Legislature unanimously in 2005 and again in 2007,
fulfilling the requirement that it be approved by two separately
elected Legislatures before being presented to the voters.
“There are no statewide
political races this year and no national elections, so voter
turnout could be rather low,” said Citizens Campaign
for the Environment Director of Government Relations William
Cooke. “We want to be sure people know about the merits
of this proposal before they get to the voting booth.”
“The entire transaction
is being paid for by the Town of Long Lake, so it won’t
cost voters a dime to support the land swap,” said Residents’
Committee to Protect the Adirondacks Board Chair John Collins.
“We will be working through Election Day to make sure people
know about the vote and what it means for the town.”
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