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Springtime
failed to come to Chautauqua Lake on March 21, as Spring arrived. As
you can see in the photo, we still had snow on the ground and ice on the
lake this week! But, we know that summer will be here soon, get ready!
Your
Chautauqua Lake Partnership’s (Partnership) all-volunteer Officers,
Board Members, Advisors and others are progressing all Partnership
Projects during this never-ending winter. We’re proud to say that the
Partnership is the only Chautauqua Lake organization actively addressing
watershed, in-lake and regional lake issues. [Note: Contrary to a rumor
spread by another lake organization, no Partnership Officers, Advisors
or Board members are compensated for their thousands of hours of
volunteer time. As opposed to other lake organizations, 100% of your
Partnership contribution goes to lake improvement projects.]
We
described the Partnership’s support for development of a Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for herbicide use in the last
update. Despite the obstruction by a few, described in the last update,
the SEIS was completed, approved by the Town of Ellery Board, the Lead
Agency, and issued on schedule on April 5, 2018, after 6 months and
$250,000. Recall that Chautauqua Lake is the only lake in New York State
(NYS) with such an SEIS-requirement, a result of a short-sighted 1986
agreement between the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
and the CLA.
We
mentioned a lawsuit by ~15 Maple Springs and Chautauqua Institution
residents against the Town of Ellery, Chautauqua County and the DEC in
the last update. This Article 78 suit organized by Jane Conroe, member
of the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Alliance Science Committee, wife of
CLA Executive Director and mother of the CLA Treasurer, organized the
suit. We described the suit as of no merit in the last update, and in
fact, it was dismissed on one of several faults by Judge Dillon of the
NYS Supreme Court, on February 26, 2018.
The
now-issued SEIS, intended to be included in the County’s Macrophyte
Management Strategy scope but never completed, will satisfy the 1986
DEC/CLA agreement and pave the way for DEC’s processing of herbicide
permits. 3400 Letters of Notification were sent March 14 and nine
herbicide permit applications were submitted to DEC by four Towns
(Ellery, Ellicott, Busti, and North Harmony) and one Village (Celoron)
on March 16, 2018. We expect the DEC will issue permits for several days
of herbicide treatment of the invasive weeds Eurasian Water Milfoil and
Curly Leaf Pondweed in ten areas of the lake in early May, 2018, well
before the summer season begins. That is optimal timing for herbicide
effectiveness and minimal negative impact. [Note: Contrary to a rumor
spread by another lake organization, Agent Orange, the Vietnam-era
defoliant contaminated with dioxin, the chemical which got our
servicemen sick, was not used in the successful 2017 Bemus Bay herbicide
treatment. Only EPA and NYS DEC-approved herbicides are used after
environmental review and permitting under the supervision of the NYS
DEC. Note that Chautauqua Lake weed cutting/harvesting undergoes no such
environmental review, requires no permits and is not supervised by the
DEC.]
Several
OpEd’s, developed by the Partnership and published in the Jamestown
Post-Journal over the last several months can be found on the
Partnership website, www.chqlake.org.
- “Weed
Management in Chautauqua Lake, “One Size Doesn’t Fit All” by Jim
Wehrfritz, Tom Erlandson, PhD, Doug Neckers, PhD, Dr. Jim Cirbus and
Mike Latone, Partnership Officers and Science Advisors, identifying
DEC-documented negative environmental impacts of weed
cutting/harvesting, was published in the Jamestown Post-Journal on
January 21. Read the article here.
- “Chautauqua
Lake: The Importance of People” by Partnership Science Advisor Tom
Erlandson, focusing on the importance of people’s use of the lake as a
necessary catalyst to lake improvement, was published March 18. Read the article here.
We encourage you to read all Partnership OpEd’s to get an objective and unbiased view of lake issues and the required action.
We
were happy to hear that $95,000 for the Partnership has been included
in the NYS 2018 Budget. This is the first state funding support we’ve
received. Thank you, Senator Cathy Young and Assemblyman Andy Goodell.
We
updated new Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello on Partnership
projects, challenges and funding requirements on April 2. Given that the
Partnership has now completed the SEIS which the County abandoned, we
are confident the County will significantly increase its $15,000
contribution made to the Partnership in 2017. We also hope to access
significant fund balance held by the County and County–sponsored
entities for 2018 Partnership projects.
We
appreciate the financial support you’ve provided thus far, ~$125,000 to
date! However, with the large slate of Partnership projects and
required resources, we must ask again. We will begin herbicide treatment
cost-focused fundraising for 2018 in mid-April. Contributions from
around the lake and in the ten communities slated for treatments are
crucial to take advantage of the completed SEIS and DEC permits in
process and, ultimately, return herbicides, used all over NYS and the
USA, as a weed management tool available to Chautauqua Lake. Please go
to our website, www.chqlake.org to make a PayPal contribution, mail a check to the Partnership at PO Box 337, Bemus Point, NY 14712or contact Sara DeMink, Partnership Fundraising Chairperson, at sdemink@me.com.
Thank you for your efforts on behalf of “Chautauqua Lake, A Great Lake Seeking a Greater Future”.
Chautauqua Lake Partnership
Officers, Advisors and Board Members
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