The Adirondack Council

News Release

RELEASED, Wednesday, December 4, 2002

BOLTON LANDING, N.Y. -- The Adirondack Council sent a letter today to every shoreline landowner and resident overlooking two bays in Lake George, warning that the state plans to test a chemical herbicide near their homes but has not adequately checked to see whether they draw water from the lake for drinking and other uses.

The Adirondack Park Agency is expected to make a decision as early as December 13 on a permit application for a controversial use of a chemical herbicide in Lake George. The Lake George Park Commission is the permit applicant. It wants to pour fluridone (brand name Sonar) into four bays on Lake George to determine its impact on non-native Eurasian Watermilfoil next spring.

"The Lake George Park Commission has an obligation to prevent people from accidentally drinking this chemical herbicide, or using it on their lawns or gardens," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "It has not done a good job so far.

"It is illegal to apply this chemical within a quarter mile of anyone's water intake in the concentrations proposed by the state through the Lake George Park Commission," he said. "Lake George is one of the few large lakes left in America that is still pure enough to drink. A lot of people along the shoreline of Lake George, both homeowners and businesses, still use lake water in their homes and on their lawns and gardens. There is a need to effectively alert those residents within a quarter mile of the areas to be treated with this chemical. So far, we can't be sure this was done."

The Adirondack Council believes the Lake George Park Commission did an inadequate job of checking to see who was still using lake water in Sawmill Bay and Moonlight Bay -- the two test sites with private lands adjacent to them.
"The park commission sent out a four-page letter in March of 2001, which didn't ask anyone to notify the commission if they still used lake water," Houseal said. "It simply asked residents to contact the commission if they were opposed to the herbicide test. That is not the same thing."

Houseal said that every attempt the Council made since March of 2001 to determine whether intakes still existed was met with resistance or silence.

"First, we asked the park commission to issue another letter, directly asking whether anyone was still drawing water from the lake," Houseal said. "The park commission refused. They said a municipal water system serves that area, and they assumed everyone has switched from lake water to piped water.

"Unsatisfied, we next visited the local water department to ask for a map of the system," he continued. "We were told the maps were missing.

"Annoyed, we next filed a Freedom of Information request with the state Department of Health, to determine whether it knew where the water intakes were," Houseal explained. "Since DOH enforces the ban on high-dose chemical pesticide applications near water intakes, we thought DOH might know where they were. Months have passed with no response from DOH.

"The only conclusion we can draw from these experiences is that no one but the individual landowners really knows where the water intakes are," Houseal said. "That's why we are sending out these letters. We had to search through the town's tax maps to determine where to send them."

The letters request that anyone with a water intake on Sawmill Bay or Moonlight Bay contact the park commission, the Adirondack Park Agency and the state health department. Each address is listed on an enclosure, sent with the letter.

"It's really disappointing that we have to do this," Houseal said. "We thought the people who were pushing to get the permit for herbicide use would be more conscientious toward the potential impact on their neighbors. Any responses we receive will be passed along immediately to all of the agencies listed on the letter."

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.