"We have an extraordinary asset in our 100-year-old, beautiful human-made lake, right in the middle of our city," said Tamar Adler, director of Friends of Oakdale Lake. "But there's confusion around where the water comes from, the clarity of the water, and what makes it into the lake from nearby properties. This is an opportunity to educate ourselves and our community about Oakdale and chart a course for how to improve the water quality, and how to protect it."
The project will identify possible sources of water pollution near the lake, which could include old infrastructure, lawns, and/or commercial facilities. It will involve citizen science and volunteer water testing. After identifying Oakdale Lake's watershed and potential sources of pollution, partners will work together to create outreach materials to share information about protecting and improving the lake.
A sinkhole encompassing two manholes has formed in the parking lot next to Stella's on Fairview Avenue.
ReplyDeleteIt's unclear whether the facility is associated with any sewers or if both are for electric only, but if a sewer is involved then it would have to be a Greenport sewer despite its location in the Oakdale Lake watershed.
Today the NYSDEC confirmed that that area is not associated with a population-based MS4 district, which would impose a higher regulatory standard for storm sewers than the very low standard now enjoyed by Greenport and Hudson. (Just consider the misery Underhill Pond has endured.)
To complicate things, Columbia County can only guess who owns the growing sinkhole. The consensus is that National Grid probably owns the parcel (#110.9-1-51), which stretches from Fairview Avenue to the 7th Street fire station and is entirely within the Oakdale-Underhill watershed.
But actually locating the deed, and thereby proving liability, will require a complicated and lengthy title search.