The Lake George Park Commission has regularly informed the public that they have hired the Center for Watershed Protection, based in Maryland, to help them draft the proposed stream corridor rules now being considered for the Lake George basin. The centerpiece of these proposed rules is a buffer area around any streams where virtually no development or land disturbance could take place by private individuals. (State, county and town highway crews will still be allowed to cut drainage ditches for road and salt runoff to enter streams.)
In an effort to learn more about the Center for Watershed Protection, I contacted the Lake George Park Commission and asked if they would provide a person at the Center for Watershed Protection whom I could interview. I never received any reply.
So when I was in Maryland, I visited their office myself. I was quite surprised to learn that their building has a stream flowing directly behind it through a giant culvert under their parking lot. The back of the building which houses their offices as well as part of the building’s parking lot, is clearly within 100 feet of the adjacent stream. There is also a deck which employees can sit on approximately 5 feet above the stream. The stream actually flows under the parking lot in a huge culvert. The parking lot was evidently constructed over the stream by placing the huge culvert under the length of the parking lot.
Here are pictures of the building they occupy, the parking lot and the stream. (Click on images for larger view.)
There was no evidence of any stormwater or sediment controls that I could see, and it appeared that every bit of stormwater and parking runoff simply entered the stream unabated. It is ironic that a group that advocates clean water management seems to turn a blind eye when it comes to the backyard of their own building.
The office was closed when I visited it and please remember that I gave them an opportunity to present someone to be interviewed and never received a response.
Some would call this rank hypocrisy. This is type of thing that makes people really mad about some elements of the environmental movement. They propose rules that they do not want to live under themselves and they are not accountable when questioned.
One of the things that the Center for Watershed Protection argues for is that trees should not be cut over streams because the shade is important to protect natural habitats. However, as you can see from the attached pictures, their own building is what provides the shade behind their building for the staff sitting on the deck and the stream alike.
If the Lake George Park Commission is going to tout the Center for Watershed Protection’s involvement in this process, it has to provide someone who can be interviewed and answer questions about and for this organization. It can’t be a shadowy group, immune to research or questions about their involvement and philosophy.
Remember the old saying; “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
Except that seems, if you’re the Center for Watershed Protection. You saw it here yourself.