Lake Colby Association

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Water Quality

Lake Colby is in trouble
Chloride levels in Lake Colby have more than doubled in the last 20 years.  This is due to salt runoff from Route 86 and from the sand/salt storage facilities of the Village of Saranac Lake and the Town of Harrietstown, both of which leach directly into the Lake.  Click here for a chronology of the pollution discussion between the LCA, Village and NYSDEC.

In recent years critical measures have worsened rapidly.  Total phosphorous loads are increasing (see graph), conductivity (another measure of salt contamination is roughly four times normal (see graph), and water clarity is diminishing (see graph). 

Recent studies show that road salt damages native plants but ironically Eurasian Watermilfoil thrives in high-chloride solutions, including the brackish waters of the Chesapeake area and in Florida. 

Solution of these problems requires rapid action by the Town, Village, and Department of Transportation.  We are engaged with all three.

Annual Monitoring
We were members of the CSLAP program from 1999 until 2001.  In 2002 we switched to the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program run by Paul Smith's.  Paul Smith's College has been monitoring Lake Colby since 1984.  Their 1984 study, the 1999 CSLAP baseline, and the 2003-2006 ALAP programs can be accessed by following these links:

Sand and Salt Pollution
The Village of Saranac Lake and the Town of Harrietstown both store their sand and salt mixture for road treatment in facilities that leach directly into the Lake (click here to see the Village sand pile).  This is also the confluence of a drainage system that takes water from the entire northwestern sector of the village and passes it into Colby Brook (click here to see map).  The brook passes from the marshy area adjoining the Civic Center through a culvert into a pond that literally defines the edge of the Village's sand/salt pile before entering a second culvert that carries the water into Colby Brook (click here to see the silted brook after a rain).  The pile itself is on a tilted plateau insuring that any rain will leach material directly into the brook .

The following are recent readings from the Brook versus Adirondack norms:

As expected the water sample was loaded with road salt as shown by the very high conductivity and the very high chloride level.  The sample also had an elevated total phosphorous level which could cause premature eutrophication of the lake and algal blooms.

Runnoff/Culverts
There are five culverts under Route 86 feeding runoff into the Lake from the east.  Three of these are State culverts built when the road was constructed in the 60's.  They have no buffers, silt filters, etc. and they dump runoff directly into the Lake.  The southern-most culvert can actually create a stream across the Village of Saranac Lake's public beach (click to see photo). We have presented this and other evidence to the State, Town, and Village and are lobbying them to re-work these culverts to provide up-stream silt filters and sedimantation basins and natural foliage buffers of phosphorus-absorbing plants (like cattails).

Adirondack Medical Center has a sedimentation basin for accumulated rainwater that captures water before it flows into the Lake.  We have asked, and they have agreed, to plant natural foliage buffers like cattails in this basin.