A Science-Based Justification for Proposed Somers Sewer District
The Lake Lincolndale Property Owners Association (LLPOA) has maintained a lake management program since the early 1990s. This program includes lake management best practices as prescribed by the North American Lake Management Society, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the New York Federation of Lake Associations, of which the LLPOA is a member.
An important part of this program is frequent lake water testing as part of the New York State Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment Program, managed by the DEC and the Upstate Freshwater Institute in Syracuse. Since testing began in 1993 our lake management team has seen a steady increase in the loading of nitrogen and phosphorus into the lake water and a decline of general water quality. We also take visual observations beyond the lake water and continue to see soap suds in gutters and catch basins leading to the lake. In many cases septic leakage is apparent.
We have taken water samples at various points of feeder streams into the lake, showing elevated e-coli readings. Our Chemicals of Emerging Concern testing shows levels of caffeine, artificial sweeteners, pharmaceuticals and household chemicals, all indicators of septic leakage. Septic systems that surround all of our homes and the groundwater beneath them.
We have seen our lake fish population wane as algae, fed by excess nitrogen and phosphorus, outcompete the fish for available dissolved oxygen in the water. In the past three years alone, we have had two major fish kills and a lake-wide harmful algal bloom that closed our beach for six weeks.
There are two major causes for this nutrient loading: septic leakage and unmanaged stormwater. We need to address both of these issues to at least stabilize the lake’s fragile ecosystem. This is why the proposed public sewer district is so important. If we can minimize the septic effluent being carried through groundwater, and by storm water, into the lake, we have a fighting chance. It isn’t too late.
We still need to address the stormwater issue, and that will be our next battle, seeking grants and working with the town to mitigate the flow of untreated runoff into the lake.
We love Lake Lincolndale and work hard to keep the lake as beautiful and viable for recreation as we can. Luckily our bathing beach remains well within Westchester Department of Health guidelines for a bathing beach, and we are able to treat algal blooms with algaecides to keep the water pleasant. But we are merely treating symptoms and not the disease, and it’s not a sustainable practice. By eliminating these sources of nutrients, we can begin to reclaim a naturally beautiful lake.
I am voting for the proposed Somers Sewer District #2 because its time has come. I hope you will, too. If you would like more information on the LLPOA’s lake testing protocol and results please, contact me at info@lakelincolndale.org.
Michael O’Keefe
Lake Lincolndale
