Our Mission
*****
Enhance and preserve the quality of Seneca Lake Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association will further its mission through efforts to: Promote the understanding, preservation and improvement of the water quality, natural habitat and general environmental conditions of Seneca Lake and its watershed; Sponsor scientific research of the watershed to establish baseline data and monitor changes; Collect, preserve, publish and disseminate information concerning Seneca Lake and its watershed; Encourage and support the compliance with laws and regulations; Collaborate with like-minded organizations; and Promote patterns of development and technology to further our mission.

UPCOMING EVENTS!

"Hydrilla -
Invasive Species"

May 17, 2012 7 PM
Finger Lakes Institute

Presentation by
Hilary Lambert, Steward
Cayuga Lake Watershed Network

See Calendar for details

2012 ANNUAL MEETING

SAVE THE DATE
September 13th

SPEAKER
Award-Winning Reporter and Author of

"Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale"

Tom Wilber

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FURTHER DETAILS COMING SOON!

Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association
dedicated to "enhancing and preserving the quality of Seneca Lake"

Your Subtitle text

President’s Message

To all SLPWA Members and Supporters of Seneca Lake:

Message from the President:

In the past several months, Chairman Ed Przybylowicz and the Marcellus Shale Committee have done an amazing job preparing detailed responses to the DEC proposals to allow natural gas drilling to move forward in the state. Of course, the focus was to prevent adverse impacts on Seneca Lake. I am very proud of the work they did and I hope you are as well. (You can find the detailed responses on the Projects page, "Fracking".)

But we cannot rest. We must keep the legislators and local officials updated on new research and reports on shale drilling. State legislators need to know the impacts on the lakes and the opinions of their constituents as they consider legislation. Local officials should be investigating social impacts, local laws and zoning. If you have not made your elected representatives aware of your concerns, please take the time now to do so.

SLPWA is also following the LPG storage proposal in Reading, near Watkins Glen. We are pleased that the sponsor has had a "Qualitative Risk Assessment" performed on the project and made changes in the plan as a result. However, the reports that the sponsor has asked that sections of this assessment be withheld from the public are very troubling. SLPWA will be commenting shortly on this ideas and will remind the sponsor and the DEC that the DEC rules state:

"All SEQR documents and notices, including but not limited to, EAFs, negative declarations, positive declarations, scopes, notices of completion of an EIS, EISs, notices of hearing and finding must be maintained in files that are readily accessible to the public and made available on request."

In light of its own rules, it is hard to imagine how such a request can be honored by DEC.

The SLPWA board will also be carefully watching lake levels. With the lack of snow this winter the lake levels are expected to be very low.

If members hear of projects in their local area that SLPWA should be aware of or have concerns about issues affecting lake quality, please contact us a slpwa@senecalake.org.

To insure that we can continue to provide our members and the public at large with objective information that will help maintain the quality of our lake, SLPWA critically needs more members and active volunteers. Obviously, member financial support is critical to our work which involves members meetings, special educational events, mailings, support of research on the lake, student education grants, and keeping current information on our website. If you and/or your employer have not joined, please do so at:

http://www.senecalake.org/Join_Now.php

SLPWA is an all-volunteer organization, with no paid employees. The projects we can take on are limited by our manpower resources and the interests of the board members and volunteers.

SLPWA has focused on High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing, the LPG storage issue in Watkins Glen and the lake level. Research funding has been limited to enhanced monitoring of Seneca Lake so that we can scientifically know what changes are occurring in the lake and why. We simply can’t do more with existing resources, despite requests to do so.

As a result, emerging problems that may be of concern to you have not been addressed, for example:

Stormwater runoff

Blue green algae

Land use planning

Agricultural runoff

Leachates from landfill

Effluents from publicly owned water treatment facilities.

Fund-raising and major event planning and grant applications are needed to expand our research and informational outreach initiatives. We always need help at events to introduce SLPWA to the public. Finally, we need more active people to serve on our Board of Directors to help guide the organization going forward.

In the coming year, we plan to focus on increasing our membership and volunteers to help fulfill our mission.

If you have an interest in volunteering, please contact us at:

slpwa@senecalake.org.

Mary Anne Kowalski

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SLPWA's Minimum Requirements for Environmentally and Fiscally Responsible Drilling for Natural Gas

Contact information of the Federal and State officials concerned with the Seneca Lake watershed including Governor Cuomo, DEC Commissioner and EPA administrators.