6.6.13:MLID Meeting Notes

I'll aim to bring you full, proper notes of all meetings going forward.  Here are abridged, unofficial notes:

Mohegan Lake day will be on July 14th, 2013.  Save the Date.  Details of all activities to follow shortly.  Remember what a good time we had last year.  This year will be on par.

We love our beavers.  They do pose a problem.  Mohegan Ave is constantly flooded and it's too much maintenance for the town to keep up with.  There's a reason people say "busy as a beaver."  These cute little critters are industrious; they are making an amazing comeback all around the region (we should welcome it since our fore bearers nearly extincted them).

We are opening discussions with the town.  Aiming for a bridge over Mohegan Avenue because that's the real (and natural) solution.  Wetlands are supposed to regulate the level of the lake.  It's supposed to flow back and forth. Mohegan Ave never should have been built as it is because it completely blocks that natural flow of the lake to the wetlands and vice-versa.  The real solution is that the Army Corp of Engineers redesigns it.  In the meantime, we'll do our best with our able bodied Highway Department. 

Lake health is not awesome, but water quality is still fully swimmable--as of today.  Many factors contribute to water quality, but one problem is invasive plant species.  The kind that live under water, like water chestnuts and curly leaf pondweed.

Our weed harvester was bought new in 1984.  I was 6 years old then, now 35 with 4 daughters.  It's a machine and is basically kaput.  We have a decent budget, about $96,000 a year, but a new harvester is about 100K.  We'd have to bond it.  Going to be done as it's a necessity, not happening this year.
Wayne--our lake manager-- and his boys are using the Jon boat and elbow grease to do everything possible to remove as much plant matter as possible.  Remember, those plants just die and add to the nutrients that fuel the algae blooms.

Algae is bad and we'll get it again this year. We are exploring several solutions: barley straw, Phoslock (way too expensive), and Alum (expensive, but we could swing it, but there are DEC permitting issues).

If you have an interest in Mohegan Lake, please stay tuned and get involved.

Getting Up To Speed On The Issues

I highly recommend you get on the official Mohegan Lake Improvement District (MLID) listserv.  You can stay up to date on current issues and meeting dates/times.  Get in touch with MLID president Ken Belfer, or send me an email at YorktownCode@gmail.com, if you're interested in joining.

Quick summary of the most pressing issues:

1)  The blue-green algae problem.  We have a plan to apply for a New York State Department of Environmental Protection to apply alum (aluminum sulfate) to the lake.  The idea is that the alum would bind the phosphorous which is what the algae thrives on--or at least that's my layman's understanding of the issue.

2)  The MLID weed harvester (big boat that harvests the invasive weeds that live under water) is on it's last legs.  It will likely not function for another season.  It is a big ticket item; the current weed harvester was purchased in the mid-80's.  It now spends more time on shore, getting repaired, than it does in the lake.

3)  The  budget.  For the first time last year (2012), the town adjusted our budget--without our knowledge--from the normal 5% admin fee the MLID fund pays to the town by $2,000.  That raised our admin fees to 7.4%.  There's a budget hearing tomorrow, 12/5/12.  We are hoping that they cap the admin fee for all districts at 6%.

4)  The budget, part 2: The MLID general fund has been depleted to the point where we may not be able to afford the alum treatment or a new weed harvester. Alum is a short term solution, but if we don't go forward, you can expect that the NYS Department of Health will likely shut down the lake to all swimming in mid-July again because of the blue-green aglae (ours is more green--neon green algae).  About three years ago our fund was over $300,000 because we had budgeted dredging.  Because of previous applications of copper sulfate (copper is heavy metal, in a bad way), the dredged material would have to be treated as hazardous waste and cost prohibitive to dispose of.  Now we may not have the funds to treat the lake to reduce--if not eliminate--the algae blooms.

So, in summary, we need you to get involved.