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8-25 JPJ Tuesday
Chautauqua County celebrated quite a milestone recently with completion of the second phase of the South and Center Chautauqua Lake Sewer District's Westside Sewer Extension.
It won't be long until there are public sewers all the way around Chautauqua Lake. It felt like one needed binoculars two decades ago to see the finish line when the idea of building sewers around Chautauqua Lake was first being discussed. Since 2017, when work on the first phase of the sewer extension began, sewers have been extended to Stow west along Route 394 toward the boundary with the North Chautauqua Lake Sewer District service area as well as along Davis Road toward Camp Prendergast. The final phase will extend public sewer infrastructure from Point Chautauqua to Midway State Park, closing the remaining gap and completing the system connection around the lake’s south and northern basins.
This has been a project worth supporting, but this feels like a good time to remind everyone that while building sewers around the lake is an incredible accomplishment, it was an admittedly big component of a bigger project to reduce the amount of nutrients making their way into Chautauqua Lake. Sewers go a long way toward addressing aging septic system infrastructure that was allowing nutrients to reach the lake and help fuel plant growth and algal blooms.
It was a goal, not the goal.
While the sewer districts' work will be wrapping up with the completion of Phase 3, work to keep nutrients out of Chautauqua Lake isn't finished. Sources of phosphorus loading in the lake have largely been attributed by the state DEC to point source discharges from wastewater treatment plants and nonpoint source discharges from residential on-site septic systems, agricultural runoff, urban and residential development runoff, natural background, groundwater seepage and internal loading.
We should celebrate milestones like the completion of Phase 2 of sewers around the lake when we reach them. A lot of hard work and a lot of money go into these projects. But we also know the work isn't done when it comes to decreasing the amount of phosphorus from getting into Chautauqua Lake. We've won an important battle. The war against phosphorus in Chautauqua Lake still rages on.