New York’s Lake George hits 23rd 'dead zone' summer
Stream protection rules await action as seasonal problem endures 
By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer
LAKE GEORGE — With new rules to protect Lake George’s streams still to be unveiled, this summer marked the 23rd in a row in which a pollution-fueled “dead zone” formed in deep water at the southernmost end of the lake. From the village of Lake George toward Tea Island, oxygen levels at the bottom of the lake drop during the summer as a mix of nutrients from fertilizers, storm runoff and septic leakage fuels microbial activity. The microbes consume increasing amounts of oxygen, which leaves too little for fish and other aquatic life to survive. Since the seasonal dead zone was first discovered in 1986, it has not spread northward, said Larry Eichler, research scientist at the Bolton Landing-based Darrin Freshwater Institute, an affiliate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The low-oxygen zone remains confined in the southernmost of the lake’s five “sub-basins” — deep pools separated by much shallower water. The affected basin, which is about 180 feet deep, represents about 20 percent of the lake’s surface, Eichler said. “While it is not spreading, we cannot say whether this zone is growing in size or not,” Eichler said. “The concern is that zone could move up north into the other basins. Right now, the southern basin is acting like a giant sediment trap, catching this stuff.” In the fall, oxygen levels are restored when the lake “turns over”: The lake surface cools, and upper-level waters carrying more oxygen mix with the oxygen-depleted deep waters. “The annual formation of a dead zone in Lake George is a warning — a canary in the coal mine — of future water quality trends,” said Peter Bauer, executive director of the Fund for Lake George, an environmental group. …
