By Matthew Saari
A private septic system in the Town of Dresden is leaking untreated septage into Lake George, the “Queen of American Lakes.”
Dresden town supervisor Paul Ferguson brought the matter before the public at Monday’s monthly town board meeting.
“The E. coli in Cook’s Bay has been very high,” he said, adding that the test samples drawn from Lake George bay have been between 1,500 and 2,000 parts per million compared to the “passable” quantity of 200 parts per million.
Parts per million is a scientific unit of measure used to indicate the mass of a contaminate or chemical per volume of liquid and is interchangeable with milligrams per liter.
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines E. coli as “a bacterium commonly found in the intestines of humans and other animals . . . some strains can cause severe food poisoning.”
Huletts resident Jane Carter, who “lives a couple of bays down,” provided a description of the water conditions found in Cook’s Bay.
“There’s lots of algae and a lot of stuff that’s really bad and it’s one of the worst bays at Lake George,” she said. “All I know is it’s real bad there; people aren’t swimming there.”
Ferguson went on to explain that the state Department of Environmental Conservation – which conducted the water testing – has requested the town board vote to allow the agency to come to Dresden and begin narrowing down which septic system is the culprit.
This request caused no small amount of consternation and confusion – among the public and board members.
“Why does [DEC] have to have council vote,” asked board member Allen Wilbur. “Why can’t the DEC just do it on their own, that’s their job to police that.”
Ferguson explained, “DEC told me that I have to have town council behind DEC, with Matt Fuller (town attorney) to do this.”
Board member Marc Brown was also baffled at the request, stating that code enforcement and Department of Health are both domains of Washington County.
Resident Chris Diekel also voiced her concerns over the town getting involved in something that is outside its bailiwick.
“I mean if that’s the only way . . . there are other ways in getting the DEC there than have the Town of Dresden poking their nose in and having us get involved when we really shouldn’t be,” she said.
With board members and the public both questioning the town’s involvement in a health and environmental conservation issue, Ferguson said he would contact DEC, stating the consensus is this is a code enforcement or Department of Health issue.
“Exactly,” Wilbur agreed, likening this situation to someone dumping garbage in the woods. “They’re going to enforce that, that’s their job. We don’t have authority over DEC so why would we do that?”
