It’s time, in our opinion, for everyone to take a deep breath and regroup on the subject of new state watershed regulations.

We’re not entirely sure the state Legislature intended the lakes to be included in the watershed regulations. It’s not clear that the regulations considered what should be done with developed shoreline when the regulations were drafted. And we have yet to hear a good explanation for how the state DEC is going to manage hundreds of thousands of acres of additional watersheds that would fall within its purview the way the regulations are written.

It’s time to hit the pause button, as was suggested last week by County Executive PJ Wendel and by lake advocate Jim Wehfrtitz during his comments to the DEC during an in-person public comment session last week.

January 1 is looming, and other than knowing there will be a new permit for Chautauqua Lake there are a lot of unanswered questions. Assemblyman Andy Goodell and state Sen. George Borrello also raised several interesting questions that Sean Mahar, interim state DEC commissioner, didn’t answer well. The wrong thing to do is to simply push ahead as if the questions raised since February have no merit.

The fact that opinions among local decision makers have changed so much over the past seven months is proof that people’s concerns have merit.We also have to remember there will always be DEC oversight when it comes to Chautauqua Lake – the real question is how much is necessary and appropriate.

It’s clear more work is needed, and there should be an opportunity for the public to react to any changes that are proposed. That only happens properly if the January 1 deadline stops looming over the process. .

It’s time, in our opinion, for Gov. Kathy Hochul to step in and delay implementation of these regulations if the DEC doesn’t do it on its own.