The Adirondack Council

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Sunday, June 30, 2002

For more information: John F. Sheehan - 518-432-1770

BOLTON LANDING, NY -- At the request of the Adirondack Council, a NYS administrative law judge has subpoenaed a state official to testify in an Adirondack Park Agency hearing to determine the fate of a request to use a chemical herbicide to kill Eurasian milfoil in Lake George.

A subpoena was issued earlier this week to William Mark Bush, deputy commissioner for the NYS Office of General Services. The months-long hearing resumed Friday after a brief hiatus. "We didn't want to subpoena state officials to testify in this case, but we were left with no choice, " said Adirondack Council Acting Executive Director Bernard C. Melewski. "OGS is a co-applicant in seeking this permit, yet they have refused to voluntarily appear at the public hearing to defend their own project.

"The Lake George Park Commission claims that Deputy Commissioner Bush's signature on the application means OGS agreed long ago to a plan he knew would result in the destruction of native plants -- plants so rare they are protected by law," Melewski said.

Rare and threatened plants in Lake George are protected under the state laws governing "Rare, Threatened and Endangered" species.

Each of the four sites under consideration for experimental treatment with a chemical weed killer has a "rare" or "threatened" plant community that is protected by state law.

Last summer, the Adirondack Council asked the Adirondack Park Agency to hold a hearing on the permit to sort out this issue. The APA agreed, voting unanimously that the Lake George Park Commission/OGS permit application could not be approved in its current form. That hearing began, but was adjourned while a settlement was discussed by parties in the case to scale-back the number of test sites and reduce the intensity of the dosage, as well as the associated impacts on native plants. The APA rejected this version as well, sending the permit application back to the public hearing stage, stating it needed further information to make a decision. The APA cannot formally deny an application without first holding a public hearing.

The applicant(s) then decided to resurrect the original proposal for the hearing underway now. This hearing began in April.

In the environmental impact statement it released in 2001, the Lake George Park Commission stated that it knew at least three of the six protected plants identified as living in Lake George were likely to be killed along with the Eurasian watermilfoil at the test sites. The environmental impact statement also notes that the consultants who would apply the chemical have no experience regarding the effects of the herbicide on 32 of the 48 plant species that are native to Lake George.

At a public hearing in the village of Lake George in April, 2001, held by the applicant (the Lake George ParkCommission), even the applicant's consultant declared:

"If it's a choice between killing milfoil and saving native species, we'll choose killing milfoil," said Kenneth Wagner, who is recommending placing more than 2,000 pounds of the chemical at four sites in Lake George in the experimental first year.

While milfoil has been present in Lake George since 1985 or earlier, it only finds suitable habitat on a maximum of eight percent of the lake bottom. Currently, it occupies less than three percent of the 28,000-acre lake bottom. The application calls for experimental treatments at Sawmill, Paradise and Moonlight bays, and at West Tongue Mountain.

"Testimony and data have already been presented in this hearing by the applicant showing that, in three of the four proposed test areas, milfoil has declined without any intervention in the past six years or more," Melewski said. "At West Tongue Mountain, milfoil now covers less than 6 percent of the proposed treatment area."

Sonar was approved for use in the United States in 1986. It was banned in New York during the Cuomo Administration. The ban was lifted in 1995. It has never been used in an Adirondack lake. The Council's board of directors has adopted a policy stating that chemical pesticides should be used only as a last resort to control exotic species, after all chemical-free methods have been tried and failed.

If the APA approves a permit for the use of Sonar in the lake, the applicant(s) must then seek a final permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation. DEC declined to hold joint hearings with the APA.

The Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural character and human communities of the Adirondack Park through research, education, advocacy and legal action.