SUNDAY GAZETTE
Schenectady, NY
June 8, 2003
High water at Sacandaga erodes shore, recreation businesses
By JOE MAHER
Gazette Reporter
MAYFIELD - The Great Sacandaga Lake level is high, some 2 1/2 feet above the target level for this time of year and only about a half a foot from the top of the Conklingville Dam spillway.
The high water is causing shoreline erosion problems and it's also causing problems for businesses that depend on a beach and picnic crowd to get the summer season rolling.
Wally Karp, the owner of the Driftwood Park in Mayfield, said that many boaters like to launch their craft in the early part of April, so they're about five weeks behind schedule this year.
Karp couldn't estimate the amount of money he's lost but notes there are a finite amount of weeks and weekends in the tourist season and he's already lost a handful.
"The first part of the year depends on the weather for picnics and everything else," Karp said Tuesday. "Nobody's been around. In fact, the bottom half of the picnic area is under water and there's no beach crowd yet. It's under water right now."
That's also the case at the state-run Northampton Beach State Campground.
Manager Brad Buyce said about 50 of the campground's 224 sites were still under water this past Tuesday as was a solid third of the day-use area and the entire beach.
"We have plenty of picnic area but the beach itself is under water," he said.
Some people took refunds but most people opted for another campsite over the Memorial Day weekend when the one they had reserved was swamped, Buyce said.
Carrie and Victor Kranz have owned Northampton Sport and Marine for five years and this is the highest they've seen the water this late.
Northampton Marine uses the Northampton Beach slip to launch boats they store so they're behind on that work.
They've also noticed a decrease in traffic in general because people who would normally be day-tripping at the campground are staying away.
"It's terrible, there's no beach," said Northampton Marine technician Dave Wyllie. "There's no place to pull up and get out of your boat and relax, no islands. Also, it's eroding the shoreline and a lot of people can't get to their docks."
"We're fine but I know a lot of our customers are not because they're holding off on launching their boats waiting for the water to go down on the shoreline," Victor Kranz said.
That's the case with Ron Prusko of the town of Day, who owns a 21.5-foot Mirage cruiser.
"I'm really teed off this year. Not only am I paying for the dock space that I can't use but they're going to be charging me storage on the other end because I can't get it on the water," he said.
Root systems exposed
At the Northville municipal beach, the bathhouses were partially submerged on Tuesday and trees around the lake are showing the effect of the high water: exposed root systems.
Other casualties include the Mayfield town beach, which is under water, the Broadalbin town beach and the state boat launch on Route 30 just north of Northville. The water had receded just enough to launch at the state site in Broadalbin Wednesday, though.
The lake level is maintained by the Hudson River Black River Regulating District, an agency that uses the man-made reservoir as a flood-control device in the spring and to augment the flow of the Hudson River in the summer and fall.
It's considered full when the elevation at the Conklingville Dam is 768 feet above sea level; the level Tuesday was 770.57 feet, less than half a foot from the spillway's 771-foot elevation.
While the lake was built for flood control and low-flow augmentation, the recreational industry that sprung up has become a strong voice in lake affairs.
As part of the relicensing process for the E.J. West hydroelectric power station in Conklingville, the lake regulators and people with recreational interests who got involved in the process were able to develop a new set of target levels for the lake's elevation.
When the water drops early, boat owners pull out early.
The main goal of the new target levels was to keep water in the lake longer in the summer, ensuring a longer and more profitable recreational season.
Peter VanAvery, Batchellerville Bridge Action Coalition co-founder, contends that the regulating district is arbitrarily keeping the lake higher than the targeted elevation, thereby causing erosion problems on the shoreline.
"The shoreline has taken a tremendous beating," he said. "For a solid week, the lake was kept up at 771 or above, which meant that the water was actually going over the spillway, a phenomenon that has occurred only a handful of times in the whole 70-year history of the lake."
VanAvery said his argument is buttressed by the fact that the amount of precipitation received has not been far above normal.
'Arbitrary decision'
"You can't blame it on Mother Nature. This is an arbitrary decision by a state agency. The mentality seems to be: 'Hey, you want high water? We'll give you high water,' " he said.
VanAvery complained to the Gov. George Pataki in a letter last week , which he also sent to the regulating district.
Robert Foltan, the district's chief engineer, said he hadn't seen the letter and didn't really have a response to VanAvery's claims, other than to say that the district is releasing as much water as possible, also per the settlement agreement. He said it could be late June before the Great Sacandaga is within a half-foot of the target elevation.
Concerned people call
Foltan did say that the district has received telephone calls from people concerned about shoreline erosion.
He said the district is required to examine shoreline erosion and stability and to make efforts to improve the stability of the shoreline per the settlement agreement.
Foltan said the district recently hired an engineering firm to assess the shoreline as part of the settlement agreement.
Victor Kranz at Northampton Marine noted the irony that high water, not low water, was making people mad this year.
"People complain when it's too low, they complain when it's too high. If they could just keep it right in the middle everyone would be happy," he said.