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The Lake George Park Commission will be releasing a draft of their proposed rules to protect stream corridors next month.
The Albany Times Union reports on it here. |
This article is a bit oversimplified because it equates runoff with only private property development. Most people don’t know that when the LGPC was created, it was not given any authority to regulate other government entities. The biggest factor in pollutants reaching the Lake is runoff from County and State roads, especially salt and oil. But the LGPC has no authority to regulate other government bodies. This past summer, Washington County dug trenches down the mountain to facilitate runoff from County Route 6. When they did this, they destroyed areas Ed had created to catch runoff from the road. He had dug mini-sediment-basins over the course of a few years to catch any salt before it entered any stream. In the course of about two hours all of these were destroyed. The County’s response was that they could do whatever they wanted to because the LGPC regulations didn’t apply to them – and they did.
While we agree that every stream should be protected, we would like to see the government subjected to the same rules that private property owners are. Especially, when road pollutants are the biggest factor in runoff reaching the Lake. Until they are, the biggest source of pollutants will continue to flow.