Report from the NYSFOLA annual conference
The NY State Federation of Lake Associations holds a two-day educational conference every spring at Lake George. Topics range from lake management problems and solutions to “lessons learned” about operating a lake association. Pretty much, it’s a sharing of research findings, ideas, and experience—all in all, a very informative collection of presentations.Alan Knight attended six presentations on Friday, May 2nd, and Dirk Felton attended the next day. Here are the take-home points from the sessions they attended.
Day 1, Friday, May 2nd:
1. An opening presentation by an enthusiastic young man (heck, everybody seems younger to me these days) reporting on a kind of “youth conservation corps” he has managed in Onondaga County (Syracuse) for several years. This program, funded by grants, largely from the federal government, hires teenagers largely drawn from inner city and puts them to work on erosion control projects, tree planting, etc. He stressed that he views it as a kind of “character building” program and career development program every bit as much as an environmental program, pointing out most of the kids first join when about 13 or so and stay with it summer after summer, with many going on to environmental sciences in college. Of course, he’s worried what the slash and burn mood in Washington will do to it. Many in the audience were musing how such a program could be helpful in their watershed. In some counties, programs like this are operated by the county Soil and Water Conservation District.
2. Krista Spohr, from DEC spoke on new NYS rules for wetlands designation and permitting. You can read the whole deal on the DEC website. In a nutshell, as copied from the Website: For a wetland to meet jurisdictional criteria for protection it must:
a. Now have an area of 12.4 acres or more in order to come under DEC jurisdiction, BUT, as of January 1, 2028, the threshold will decrease to 7.4 acres.
b. Meet any of 11 Unusual Importance criteria.
c. To ensure the functions and benefits of jurisdictional wetlands are preserved, the department regulates a 100 foot 'adjacent area' to maintain protective buffers.
Also, there is much jockeying (and hearings) going on to create “generic permits.” In other words, common projects like installing a dock might –and probably will – be covered in advance by a “generic permit.”
As presently written, says Ms. Spohr, the new regulations would require a permit for even hand-pulling of aquatic weeds. The audience was not happy.
DEC is buried in wetlands permit applications already (1,300 per year), and will be far deeper under bureaucratic water with these changes.
3. Aline Onion, from DEC, reported on the CSLAP program, which she directs. CSLAP stands for Citizens’ Statewide Lake Assessment Program. It’s a program whereby locals folks take water samples and send them in for analyses that look for key indicators, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, clarity, salt content, etc.
- “There are 2,000 lakes in NYS,” she said. “Only 200 are enrolled in CSLAP.
- “As a simple rule of thumb, if 20% or more of the acreage of your watershed is occupied by human use—farming, residential, or commercial, it will be eutrophic (overloaded with nitrogen and phosphorus).
- CSLAP date is reported to EPA.
- She says she can provide “additional data plots” upon request.
4. Michael Martin, an environmental scientist employed by Suozzi, Doty & Associates, Lake Placid. He presented 33 years of water quality data from two lakes in Franklin County (up toward the St. Lawrence River). Fascinating stuff and it’s hard to argue with 33 years’ worth of data.
- “Your spring run-off pretty much tells you what you water quality will be in the
Summer [and fall].” Uh, oh. We’ve had a deluge of run-off this spring.
- Consequently, “extreme weather events—such as we’re having right now in upstate NY, or hurricane-downpours-a-are a main cause of excess nutrients in lakes.” It’s all about run-off and silt.
- One of the two lakes he has monitored was owned by a clear-cutting timber company in the 1800s. Although the trees have regrown, Mr. Martin is convinced the clear cutting led to severe erosion [there’s that run-off factor again], the silt from which still sits in the lake bottom, still fueling algae blooms.
- One of the findings I found most interesting was that one lake, surrounded by dirt roads, has markedly less phosphorus than the one surrounded by paved roads. Hmmm. Go figure.
- Water temperatures in the Adirondacks are rising, but less so than globally. Warmer water means less oxygen for fish, which are getting increasingly sandwiched between warmer surface water and the no-oxygen zone at the bottom.
- The Mt. Arab Association controls both lakes. It sells or leases vacation-home lots. They now require composting toilets.
- Road salt is cumulative in the lakes and is adversely affecting them. It is accumulating in Duane Lake, too, by the way.
5. Culture of Conservation Communications—Howard Schaffer, a professional “media counselor” and member of the Lake Luzerne Association.
- You have a story to tell: local people doing neat stuff. It helps get local government support.
a. Create awareness
b. Enhance reputation
c. Promote / create membership
d. Craft an image
e. Build credibility
f. Pique curiosity
- The PR process:
a. Define goals
b. Define target audience
c. Research the media (print, electronic, social, bloggers)
d. Create a strategy
e. Develop story ideas
f. Prep “pitch” materials
g. Contact the media target
h. Follow up
i. Continue the follow-up
j. See results!
- Involve high school students in projects?
6. “Geospatial Solutions for Septic Challenges,” a presentation by Kevin Suchecki, geography major, senior at SUNY Oneonta. Use of sophisticated software to precisely catalog all the backyard septic systems around Otsego Lake. He may have written or at least modified the software. If we were to use such a digitized tool at Duane Lake we would have find he had an advantage: Otsego Lake is under the supervision of the Otsego Lake Watershed Coordinating Committee, created by the State Legislature under the authority of NYS Health Law. It has absolute power to manage backyard septic systems, including access for inspection.
Day 2, Saturday, May 3rd:
The conference is a great place to see how other communities are dealing with similar issues. Better living through chemistry is a theme popularized by the vendors and academics alike. At lunch, I sat next to 2 folks from a lake near Stewart airport. Their lake was drained because the dam was unsafe. 2 ½ yrs and a lot of bureaucracy later a retired atomic engineer from Indian point took it upon himself to get the dam replaced and the lake is now full again. That lake is loaded with PFAS from fire fighting foam used at the airport.
"Evaluation of Aeration for the Mitigation of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs)" - Anne McElwee, Graduate Student, SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry
Lake Mohegan at 103 acres is similar to Duane Lake though they have more development, swimming beaches, etc and habs. They installed a $300K aerator with 43 diffusers. It costs $2.5K/month to operate the two compressors in the warm months. DO increased 10x, temp increased, total chlorophyl was unchanged, cyanotoxins were reduced and there were no habs in year 2. In year 3 with little rain and no outflow the habs came back. The conclusion was, aeration helped but not enough to overcome the variation due to flow.
"Internal Loading-Updated Solutions for an Old and Increasing Problem for Lakes" - Fred Lubnow, Senior Technical Director of Ecological Services, Princeton Hydro
Their work targeted P from sediment. They used an alum injection system 110 gal/acre to bind P, a herbicide for curly pond weed and Pac27 pellets (SePro company) as an algecide.
https://www.sepro.com/aquatics/pak-27
This could be effective for Duane lake if blue green algae increases to unsafe levels.
"Mitigation of Harmful Algal Blooms By Electrochemical Ozonation: from Bench-Scale Studies to Field Applications" - Yang Yang, Assistant Professor, Clarkson University
This professor applied electricity to lake water which converted salt to chlorine to kill algae. If the voltage is increased (14-17 v) without salt, ozone is produced which has a similar effect but uses more electricity. This could be viable in the future but it’s not ready yet. Gas generators on a pontoon boat were used in the pilot test.
"Preparing for Restoration – Lake Neatahwanta" - Shannon Junior, Water Quality Technical Specialist, EutroPHIX, Mike Peterson, Reimagine Fulton
In this experiment Lanthanum was used to permanently bond to P. A slurry of Eutrosorb G and bentonite were used at the inlet to reduce P. 50 lbs of Nutrasorb removes 1 lb of P. I did not hear what this costs per acre.
"Recent Findings by the Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Panel" - Eric Randall, NYSFOLA Board
The US is divided up into regions to study nuisance aquatic species. NY has the whole gamut from marine issues to the South, lake issues to the North and Great lake issues to the West. The NEANs panel makes recommendations but does not have their own research budget. They are responsible for sounding the alarm and ranking severity when an issue comes up.
https://www.northeastans.org/index.php/home-page/contact-us/
"Determining the Source of Aquatic Foam in the Finger Lakes: Insights into Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms in Low-Nutrient Systems" - Stella Woodard, Scientific Consultant, Global Aquatic Research LLC
In this study, large lake foam was found to be high in carbohydrates and 70x higher in PFAS. The PFAS was so concentrated that foam removal may be an effective water quality improvement technique.
"Management of Hydrilla In Two Connecticut Lakes" – George Knoecklein, Limnologist, Northeast Aquatic Research
George was extremely animated and concerned that boats from the Ct river are not being inspected before they are launched in other rivers and lakes. Ct does no or limited boat inspections/cleaning so outbreaks elsewhere are inevitable.
"Phragmites Management Options & Case Studies" - Luke Gervais, Project Ecologist, GEI Consultants
The author described their attempt to stop invasive species from spreading. Once an outbreak is found it may be too late because there are probably other impacted areas that have not been detected. He suggested inspecting shorelines 2-3x per year.
"Building Capacity to Prevent AIS in the Columbia River Basin" -Jacob Utrie, Vice President of Operations, CD3 Systems
The company builds solar powered systems to clean boats that can be used by boat owners without assistance.
This conference imparts a lot if useful information—definitely worth attending. I encourage my Duane Lake neighbors to attend in the future. The DLA pays for your expenses!