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Hamilton County Express:  "Lakes Alliance Finds Strength in Numbers"

1/13/2016

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By CRISTINE MEIXNER
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Editor
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PISECO -- Adirondack Lakes Alliance had a successful first year, and is looking forward to building on that success in 2016.

The group of lake associations from across the Adirondack Park was created late last year to share information and resources and advocate for lake protections. Its first and most important target is stopping aquatic invasive species.

Thanks to the regional approach the ALA won funding for a pilot program of boat wash stations and launch stewards that was implemented this past summer. The 2015 Region-wide AIS Prevention Pilot Program funded stewards at 14 high priority sites and 11 new boat decontamination stations.

The problem with aquatic invasive species is the damage they do, not just to the existing aquatic ecosystem but also to the economy of areas they infect. 

ALA Region D, Fulton and Hamilton counties, met Dec. 9 at the Piseco school, hosted by Piseco Lake Association. In addition to the successful pilot program there was further good news.

In November the State of New York announced a $2 million grant program for projects that will build on the pilot program and expand the fight against aquatic invasive species. The chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Supervisors, Bill Farber, is a member of the grant program's advisory group.

ALA Executive Director Ed Griesmer, Loon Lake Park District Association, told the group, "You folks are really out front in terms of addressing the problem and the support you are getting."

He said there are over 3,000 lakes, rivers, and streams in the six-million-acre park, most not infected. But the park is surrounded by infected waters.

That's why most of the boat washes were located on the periphery of the park, and only a few in the interior.

3% CONTAMINATED

Eric Holmlund of Paul Smith's College's Adirondack Watershed Institute said, "It was not coincidental that the ALA formed and then we suddenly had this incredible [pilot project]."

He said about 11 decontamination stations were run this past summer by Paul Smith's College plus 10 in Lake George and one in Loon Lake, and the college managed over 45 steward locations for a total of 56.

"Money in was about $1.5 million," Holmlund said. "We spent about $1.1 million and are hoping to roll over the balance into 2016."

Holmlund said about 11 percent of the boats inspected this past summer had organisms on them, and 2.8 percent carried aquatic invasive species. "In a sense that's good news, most of the watercraft you don't have to worry about, but that 3 percent is the threat," he said.

Most of the contaminated boats came from Saratoga Lake.

90% LIKE IT

Jamie Parslow of Piseco supervises the Adirondack Watershed Institute's Stewardship Program. "Overall response to the program was very positive, people were glad we are finally doing something," she reported.

The other 10 percent, she said, didn't understand the program can work. "People thinking it is an impossible task and the focus should be on management," she said, "or [the boat washes should be open] 24/7. Once educated some came around."

The program works, she said, and gave an example. "One boat inspected at Indian Lake Marina was covered in zebra mussels and the people drove to the Speculator decontamination station."

Parslow would like the boat washes to be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. She would also like more launch stewards "so all launches are covered so all boats are held to the same standard of cleanliness; this would address the problem of people complaining they don't have to [be inspected] at a different launch."

The AWI pays boat wash staff $13 an hour. Both full- and part-time positions are available.

RAPID RESPONSE

While the ALA's focus is on prevention, there is also a team of four people that springs into action when a new invasive species infestation is found.

The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program's Rapid Response Team was created to detect and rapidly eradicate new infestations and control existing infestations when time allows, Project Coordinator Erin Vennie-Vollrath explained.

The team surveyed 38 lakes for early detection this summer, she said. "Seventeen had AIS, 13 with Eurasian water milfoil, and one new infested lake was found (Square Pond). There was no new spiny waterflea or Asian clam found."
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APIPP has funding for the team for five years, she said.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Several representatives of local governments were present, including Fred Monroe, the outgoing supervisor of the Town of Chester, Warren County, who has been involved in fighting AIS for a long time.

He says local governments should be concerned about the impact of AIS on shoreline properties, and do whatever it can to help the lake associations in the battle.

 "Reduced market values of 15-16 percent would have a significant affect on the tax bases," he said. "It also affects sales tax and occupancy tax revenues. It affects New York state for the same reasons."

Jon Voorhees of Indian Lake is "dismayed at how easily everyone has rolled over for the boaters. They are undeniably the source of the problem. In effect they are being subsidized by everyone else."

Farber replied, "NYS recognizes this is a tourist destination and it is transient boaters [bringing in aquatic invasive species] and it should not fall on the residents of the park alone to fight AIS. I don't think it is any mystery why we won the pilot program."
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He wants to enlist boaters' cooperation, rather than charge for boat washes, and educate them to respect the purity of the waters of the Adirondacks."To be effective against AIS we have to involve everyone," he said.
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Hamilton County Express:  "Adirondack Lakes, Rivers Getting Saltier"

1/13/2016

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Adirondack lakes, rivers getting saltier
By CRISTINE MEIXNER
Editor

PISECO -- The data shows road salt is causing great harm to Adirondack ecosystems.

That's according to Paul Smiths College School of Natural Resource Management & Ecology Interim
Dean Dan Kelting, who is also executive director of the college's Adirondack Watershed Institute.

Kelting spoke at the Dec. 9 meeting of the Adirondack Lakes Alliance at Piseco Common School. He
said he has been studying rising salinity levels for about seven years, and there is a grassroots effort to
raise awareness and change winter road management practices to protect lakes and drinking water.

"Invasive species and road salt are the two major quality issues for waters in the Adirondacks," Kelting
said. "We use a remarkable amount of salt on our roads, which is having significant impacts on our
aquatic systems and human health.

"These affects are cumulative; the longer we wait the more we will feel these affects."

Road salt is sodium chloride, the same material as common table salt. When dissolved in water it
separates into sodium and chloride ions.

The Adirondack Park contains 2,831 lane miles of state roads and 7,725 lane miles of local roads,
Kelting said.
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"State roads are treated with a yearly average of 108,000 tons of salt," Kelting said, "while local roads get 84,700 tons, so although state roads are only a third of the overall mileage they get a lot more salt.

"There is a lot of variation as to how [roads] are managed for snow and ice control."

In Fulton and Hamilton counties, he said, there are 450 state lane miles and 1,075 local lane miles using
17,170 tons on state roads and 11,800 tans on local roads, totaling over one million tons since 1980.

35 YEARS OF SALT

Widespread use of road salt started about 35 years ago in the Adirondacks, with the 1980 Winter
Olympics.
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"About 6.5 million tons of salt have been imported into the Adirondacks and applied to our road network since 1980," Kelting said. "It is the most pollutant imported into the Adirondacks, twice that of acid rain."

Kelting says very little is known about the environmental effects of road salt.

"About half of it washes off into streams and lakes, about half percolates down through the soil, part is
held in the soil and the rest continues down into the groundwater," Kelting said.

A runoff model Kelting did showed 52 percent of stream length in the Adirondacks and 77 percent of the lakes show water chemistry changes due to road salt, he said.

"We have chloride data on 84 lakes and 25 streams from the Adirondack Watershed Institute and on 54
lakes from Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation.

"We would like more monitoring volunteers," he added.

CONCENTRATIONS

Kelting said the median chloride ion concentration in lakes where there are no roads is 0.25 milligrams
per liter, and in lakes where there are roads it is 8 mg/l. Where there are streams and no roads it is also
0.25 mg/l, but streams near roads show 30 mg/l.

"Road density drives chloride density," he said. "As state road density increases salt density increases
when they are all treated the same for ice and snow control. As local road density increases it's a shotgun effect; there is no correlation due to variations in treatment."

Adirondack Watershed Institute had instruments measuring stream salinity at 30minute
intervals on four state roads for the past three winters.

"We found there are major peaks in the spring flush," Kelting said, "and peak concentrations of salt occur in the fall. As streams dry up they are fed by groundwater, so this is a major indication our groundwater is contaminated by salt."

This is a problem, he said, because it affects the food web.
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"Algae can tolerate 500 to 1,000 mg/l, zooplankton can tolerate 530 mg/l, macroinvertebrates can
tolerate 2402,500 mg/l, and fish can tolerate 50230 mg/l."

The fish most affected, he said, will decrease in the fishery, and water clarity can be affected when there
are fewer zooplankton to eat algae.

WATER WELLS
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A New York State Department of Environmental Conservation survey of 95 drinking water wells in the
Adirondacks shows sodium ranging from less than one mg/l to 273 mg/l and chlorine less than one mg/l to 393 mg/l.

Sixtyeight percent of the wells were contaminated by sodium and 75 percent by chlorine. "You can't
taste it at these levels," Kelting said, "but it can affect human health."
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"We have been working with the NYS Department of Transportation so science can help inform
practices," Kelting continued. "DOT has been working with us to try to reduce the chlorine 
concentrations in our water while still maintaining safe roads."

That may be true at the higher levels, resident John Casey said, but he saw DOT workers dumping road
salt at its shed on State Route 8 in Arietta, and had the photos to prove it. "The shed was overflowing andwhat was outside was not covered," he said. "It had run all over. It was like snow."

It took Arietta Supervisor Rick Wilt two attempts to get the salt cleaned up, Casey said.

Road salt is not going away any time soon. Sodium chloride is still the cheapest treatment for slick roads, and still the most popular choice, according to Kelting.
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