May 13, 2022
The Lake George Association and Lake George Waterkeeper have joined with the town of Hague and a lakeside resident to file a lawsuit against the Adirondack Park Agency, Lake George Park Commission and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation seeking to annul the permits issued by the APA for the first-ever use of a chemical herbicide to control Eurasian watermilfoil in Lake George this spring.
The petitioners have further asked the New York State Supreme Court in Warren County, where the lawsuit was filed, to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Park Commission from using the herbicide ProcellaCOR until the matter has been heard by the Court.
The lawsuit alleges that the APA, in issuing the permits sought by the Park Commission, failed to comply with substantive and procedural requirements of the APA Act and other laws and regulations and “orchestrated a rushed process to approve the use of a herbicide in Lake George despite an outpouring of technical and scientific opposition, procedural errors and a substantial departure from” regulatory requirements.
All court filings related to this matter can be found here.
In the weeks leading up to the APA and Park Commission decisions, the LGA and Lake George Waterkeeper repeatedly voiced concerns regarding the many unanswered scientific questions about the potential adverse impacts of using this chemical herbicide in the Lake, whose waters are designated Class AA-Special, the state’s highest classification for water quality. We implored the Park Commission to respect our science-guided concerns and the concerns of the more than 1,700 members of the public who signed a petition opposing the use of the herbicide, and urged the Commission to partner with us in conducting the Lake George-specific scientific studies needed to determine those impacts. The Park Commission repeatedly rejected our overtures, leaving us no choice but to proceed with legal action to stop the use of ProcellaCOR in Lake George this year.