Urge Gov. Hochul to Ask LG Park Commission to Slow Down on Herbicide Push

February 3, 2023

The Lake George Association and Lake George Waterkeeper are once again asking you to help protect Lake George from the first-ever use of a chemical herbicide.

We believe it’s time for the Lake George Park Commission to table its controversial ProcellaCOR proposal and allow for a thorough scientific evaluation of the short- and long-term impacts the herbicide will have on the Lake’s ecology and the people who drink its water – and we urge you to join us in calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to step in and protect our Lake.

We have provided a sample comment letter below. Feel free to use this as the basis for your letter to the Governor and be sure to include personal information about yourself and your love of the Lake. You can send your letter via email using this link. Be sure to send copies to NYS DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos at [email protected], Lake George Park Commission Executive Director David Wick at [email protected] and to [email protected].

Click here to see our concerns about statements the Park Commission has made in support of its proposal. Click here to read our comment letter detailing why the current herbicide application is seriously flawed. We have also produced a one-page fact sheet about our concerns. Plus you can learn more about the many unanswered scientific questions through these recents news segments on Look TV and The Capitol Pressroom radio program. Feel free to share this information with others who may be interested in learning more.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We protect Lake George, together!

 

Sample Letter

The Honorable Kathy Hochul
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Dear Gov. Hochul:

I am writing to ask that you step in and help protect Lake George from the potential -- and potentially irreversible -- adverse impacts of chemical herbicide use.

After nearly a year of overwhelming public opposition, and a state Supreme Court decision vacating last year’s permits due to a faulty Adirondack Park Agency review process , the Lake George Park Commission has submitted identical permit applications for use of the herbicide ProcellaCOR in the Lake this summer despite a continuing lack of Lake George-specific scientific evidence regarding the short- and long-term impacts.

It is simply not enough for the Park Commission to say that this herbicide “worked” in other Lakes. Lake George is not any other Lake, as evidenced by the State’s creation of a dedicated state agency to look out for its best interests. Lake George is a Class AA-Special waterbody and the drinking water source for thousands of local residents and visitors from around the state. It is one of the jewels in the state’s tourism crown and an economic engine dependent on its world-class water quality. To risk all this without a thorough, peer-reviewed analysis of everything that will happen in Lake George when this herbicide is applied is simply unacceptable.

Please join us in protecting Lake George by asking the Lake George Park Commission to table its proposed chemical herbicide program and participate in a thorough peer-reviewed scientific analysis of the likely short- and long-term impacts. Only then can we determine whether an herbicide is right for our Lake and everyone who cares about it.

Sincerely,