New York criticized for ending Owasco Lake watershed rulemaking

The news conference was held at Emerson Park after the state Department of Health notified Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannettino and Owasco Supervisor Ed Wagner that it will not proceed with changes to watershed rules and regulations. The agency believes the changes “are not necessary to ensure drinking water quality for the foreseeable future,” according to a letter obtained by The Citizen.

The letter, Giannettino says, “essentially sabotages the community-wide effort to enforce water quality standards in the lake watershed.”

Giannettino and Wagner, as well as OWLA President Carol Sutkus, disagree with the state’s decision. Giannettino noted that while local stakeholders led the effort, state agencies — including the Department of Health — were involved.

“Despite the voluntary participation of these agencies in this seven-year process, the New York State Department of Health arbitrarily and without explanation terminated the process,” Giannettino said. “As a result, the Department of Health essentially abdicated its responsibility to protect drinking water.”

The state Department of Health did not explain its decision when contacted by The Citizen. The department declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

The city of Auburn, the town of Owasco and OWLA filed suit in January, alleging that the state Department of Health failed to follow Public Health Law procedures in updating rules and regulations for the watershed. The department also is accused of violating the constitutional right to clean water and wrongly saying it could not regulate nutrient pollution in the lake.

The disagreements arose after local leaders submitted proposals for changes to watershed rules and regulations in 2020. The state Department of Health responded last year with its own proposal, but it ruled out many of the changes sought by local officials.

On-farm nutrient management regulations were among the amendments proposed by a local group. The state did not include nutrient controls in its proposal, despite studies that showed phosphorus leaching into Owasco Lake comes from nearby farmland.

“We followed the science,” Wagner said. “The science proved them wrong, and now they don’t want to follow the process.”

Local leaders were alerted to the new regulations after toxins from harmful algae blooms seeped into drinking water in 2016. What followed was a “series of collaborative meetings,” Sutkus said, involving city and town leaders, researchers and members of the farming community.

“They spent countless hours discussing issues that affect where they live,” Sutkus said. “The result was amendments to rules and regulations that were specifically designed to protect Owasco Lake and its drainage basin.”

She continued: “For someone in Albany to completely ignore all the hard work of all these people is unthinkable. We followed their procedures that they had established for many years, and then all of a sudden it all ended without any explanation as to why.”

After the state’s letter this week, it appears the only way to update the watershed regulations will be through a legal challenge. Giannettino and Wagner could not comment on how the department’s recent actions might affect the lawsuit, but both are frustrated that the matter has reached this point.

As leaders fight to strengthen watershed regulations, they say Owasco Lake’s health is deteriorating. The Cayuga County Health Department closed beaches at Camp Y-Owasco and the Owasco Yacht Club this week after confirming harmful algal blooms on the lake.

Giannettino outlined what the local group wants from the state, including updated watershed rules and the implementation of a total maximum daily load to curb pollution. He also called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to visit the area so they could explain “the urgency of the water quality crisis we’re facing.”

“It’s time for New York state to stop playing games with the residents of this community,” Giannettino said.