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SARANAC LAKE - An environmental group has filed papers stating it will sue Saranac Lake in 60 days if the village doesn't move or cover its sand pile, which contains salt and is situated near a brook that feeds into Lake Colby.

The Adirondack Council's suit, which would be in U.S. District Court in Albany, would allege two violations of the federal Clean Water Act, said Council spokesman John Sheehan: discharging waste into the stream without a permit and violation of the turbidity and suspended solids standard. The Council believes the sand pile is largely responsible for the lake's high salt levels due to runoff that enters the brook and then the lake, via a marsh.

If nothing changes in 60 days and the lawsuit is filed, the possible federal fine if the lawsuit is successful is up to $37,500 a day for every day the violation can be proved. Sheehan said this would be about $162.4 million, going back six years - about 19 times the village's 2009-10 budget. Although testing has been going on for longer, 2003 is when the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program began testing under the auspices of Paul Smith's College.

"A normal lake in the Adirondacks has less than one part per million of chloride," said Lee Keet, a member of the Lake Colby Association, which represents a number of nearby property owners. "Last year, Colby had 39 parts per million."

Sustained levels of 10 parts per million or higher can affect the plants and animals in the lake, Sheehan said.

Sheehan said the brook's reading was 480 parts per million this year, although it has been higher; it was 719 parts per million in 2003, he said. Levels higher than 250 parts per million are illegally high under state and federal law, Keet said.

"This is a federal law being broken, and the (state Department of Environmental Conservation), which is supposed to be enforcing it here, has not done its job," Sheehan said.

The pile is located on the village highway garage property on Van Buren Street; the brook runs on that property.

"I think it's really baseless, because we have been working on this," said village Trustee Jeff Branch. "This is just bullying tactics."

The small pure salt pile is already covered and always has been, said village Manager Marty Murphy; the much larger sand pile, which contains about 5 percent salt, is uncovered.

"At present time, the village is not under any order or mandate from the Department of Environmental Conservation or the Department of Health to cover (its) pile," Murphy said. "We've heard there's elevated levels of chloride in Lake Colby, but we haven't seen the data."

Keet said association members noticed the "lake was getting cloudier and saltier" about eight years ago, and tracked it back to the pile. He said the association has worked well with the village over the years, and helped obtain a $175,000 grant to build a sand and salt shed.

"We're not a party to the suit, but we've been trying to get something done about the levels of pollution," Keet said.

Keet said the water in Lake Colby was clear enough to drink 10 years ago, and some residents still drink it, but "I wouldn't drink it today, and I'm not sure if I would let my kids swim in it," Keet said. "While we regret the fact that someone had to file a suit over this, I guess after eight years it's about time."

Murphy said he has never had any contact with the Adirondack Council during his year-and-a-half as village manager and did not receive notice of the Council's intent until later Wednesday, after he had already been contacted by local media.

Branch said the village took its own water samples last year.

"I had discussions with the DEC," Branch said. "It's inconclusive whether we're the cause of any sort of chloride contamination to the lake. However, I don't think that negates our responsibility to do the salt and sand shed, but we have to do it properly, and we have to take care of the taxpayers when we do it. And that's what we're doing."

One possibility various village trustees have suggested is that much of the lake salt is leeching from nearby roadways, such as state Route 86, which runs along the lakeshore.

The town of Harrietstown and village of Saranac Lake have been discussing building a joint sand-salt shed for some time. The village has a $175,000 grant for it, and the town is currently writing another grant proposal to help fund its construction at its highway garage on John Munn Road. Branch said the village is waiting for more input from the town at this time.

The project was put out to bid last year, but both the village and the town rejected the bids that came in as too high. Some trustees, including Branch, favored putting the shed on the village garage property, while the other trustees and town officials favored the town property. The location was hotly debated at several meetings in 2008.

The village has made no decisions on how to respond to the potential lawsuit, but one possibility, said village Trustee Susan Waters, might be for the village to stop mixing the sand with the salt until the sand is ready to be used.

"I'm all for whatever gets us to the end solution," Waters said. "We need to make sure Lake Colby is safe."

Sheehan and Keet said the high salt levels are having a number of effects on the plants and animals in the lake. For example, the increasing cloudiness of the lake blocks sunlight for plants, Sheehan said. It can also kill off the plankton that small crustaceans eat, Sheehan said, which in turn affects the fish that eat them. It could also affect animals by removing their shelter as plants die.

Keet said there have been fewer weeds over the past 10 years.

"Most of the weeds that are gone promote phosphorus and healthy fish," Keet said. "The ones that don't seem terribly affected are invasives like Eurasian milfoil."

Lake Colby is spring-fed; aside from what runs in through the brook, the only other source of input is rainwater. Keet said he estimates the lake would take between three and five years to purge itself of the salt.

Lake Colby's shoreline is about 17,000 feet, of which 1,500 feet are privately owned and the rest are owned by the village, town or state. Lake Colby Beach, the main beach for Saranac Lake residents, is on the lake, and many people use the lake for fishing, swimming and boating.

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Contact Nathan Brown at 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.