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Lake Alliance Needs To Take One Position

Chautauqua Lake has long needed one organization to be the lake’s voice.

Many had hoped the Chautauqua Lake Management and Watershed Alliance would be that voice, but one wonders if it is capable of performing such a function as it is currently constituted.

The alliance has been very successful in securing funding and resources for water improvement projects. As was detailed earlier this week in The Post-Journal, the alliance has lessened the local cost of streambank and channel stability projects, is helping local governments find grant money to improve stormwater infrastructure and is helping Celoron find money for lakefront improvements that will help the village capitalize on the extension of the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk to Celoron as well as a large hotel being developed by the Krog Corp.

It took time to build the sort of concensus amongst all of the organizations that act on the lake’s behalf that makes such work possible. The Chautauqua Lake Management and Watershed Alliance is a worthy group. Its membership brings a diverse group of stakeholders to the meeting table on a regular basis.

Consensus building is perhaps the alliance’s greatest strength; it is also what holds the organization back from being an effective arbiter of lake issues. The alliance is most effective when all of its members agencies agree on a course of action, but members organizations will always have different ideas about how best to proceed to improve Chautauqua Lake. Some prefer herbicide use. Some prefer weed harvesting. Some prefer to work on near-lake solutions to limit phosphorus. There will always be differences of opinion between alliance members about areas that need work and how money should be spent.

Which brings us to the herbicide application for Bemus Bay. One lake agency favors the application. Two have reservations or don’t think herbicide use in Bemus Bay is needed at all. It would have been helpful to have an impartial arbiter between the organizations before the application was sent to the Department of Environmental Conservation. The Chautauqua Lake Management and Watershed Alliance, by its nature, doesn’t appear to be that type of arbiter unless it is willing to take a position on controversial issues like herbicide use in Bemus Bay.

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