Uniform septic regs eyed for Lake George

TICONDEROGA | Lake George residents who are not on public sewer systems will, in a year or so, likely be subject to septic system inspections, and will have to make repairs if they are found to be failing, Ticonderoga Councilor Tom Cunningham told the town board at its January meeting. All properties that have septic systems within 500 feet from the lake shoreline and 100 feet from all DEC regulated streams flowing into Lake George are proposed to be inspected once every five years, along with a required pump-out of the septic tank by a certified hauler, according to the Lake George Park Commission, a state agency charged with keeping the lake environmentally sound. The commission will finalize and accept public comments on its proposal this summer. Lake George and its immediate watershed are lined by 2,700 homes with private septic systems, and of those, about 17 percent are believed to be failing and polluting the water with nutrients. "That's a lot of sewage going into the lake," Cunningham said. As fertilizer does with corn, these nutrients feed aquatic algal blooms that can be toxic, and block sunlight, which can change the lake's ecology and harm its natural fishery. Poorer fishing and beaches overcome with green slime are obvious deterrents to both local residents and the tourists who make up a large part of the lake's economy. According to a policy statement by the Lake George Commission, "With Lake George experiencing its first-ever Harmful Algae Bloom in November of 2020, it is incumbent on the commission and partners to determine root causes of this event, and to implement measures to help prevent such events from occurring in the future." Cunningham said in the past different lakefront towns took different approaches — if they took any approaches at all — to septic-system inspection, which led to dissimilar enforcement of clean water rules. So towns petitioned the Lake George Commission to create a uniform inspection program. "I think it's important to eliminate the towns from performing the inspections, so it will be more consistent," he said. In a report on septic systems, the commission wrote that "analyses indicate that Lake George is prone to impacts from failing systems and that a recurrent (every five years) septic inspection program would help ensure that septic systems near Lake George and its tributaries are functioning properly." In Ticonderoga, as elsewhere, lakefront homes on public sewer won't be affected. Those on septic systems will pay an annual fee of roughly $60 to $80 for residential homes, and in the neighborhood of $100 for commercial enterprises. "It's not free, but it has to be done," Cunningham said.

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Uniform septic regs eyed for Lake George

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