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SARANAC LAKE - The state Department of Environmental Conservation is issuing a consent order requiring the village of Saranac Lake to cover or move the sand and salt pile at the village garage property on Van Buren Street.

Village Mayor Tom Michael said the DEC faxed something to the village on Wednesday, and he picked up a hard copy of the draft order over the weekend. He said village officials will meet with DEC tomorrow to discuss the consent order.

The consent order aims to reduce runoff of salt into Lake Colby and comes less than two weeks after the Adirondack Council filed notice that it will sue the village within 60 days if something isn't done about the pile. The Council believes that the pile, which contains about 5 percent salt and sits near a brook which drains into Lake Colby, is largely responsible for elevated levels of salt in the lake.

Michael said two of the steps in the consent orders - installing a silt fence to control runoff and putting in berms to prevent runoff from the pile to any drainage ditches - were already done three years ago. The DEC also asked for vegetation to be planted as ground cover; the village did this last week, Michael said.

Michael said the DEC will also require the village to build a sand and salt storage building.

"Right now they have a date of Nov. 15, which is most likely unreasonable," Michael said.

The village has a $175,000 grant to build such a storage shed, and the town of Harrietstown is applying for a grant for more money for this. Bids last year came in around $700,000, higher than local officials expected.

The village and town have discussed building a joint sand-salt shed in the past, but talks broke down last year over disagreement about whether to put it on town or village property.

Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan said this morning that "we have not heard anything" from the village.

"We had expected to by now, but our attorney has reported he has not heard a thing yet," Sheehan said.

If the Council doesn't hear anything by mid-August, when the 60 days will be up, Sheehan said, the lawsuit will go forward. If the lawsuit succeeds, the village could be fined up to $37,500 for six years of ongoing violation of federal environmental law - about $162.4 million, or 19 times the village's 2009-10 budget.

The village Board of Trustees will discuss the pile at its meeting this evening. Michael said a number of options have been discussed, including putting a tarp over the pile as a temporary fix, or storing the sand and salt separately in the future and only mixing them at the time of use.

Sheehan said a tarp "would be a good preliminary step, but we would like to see some proof they intend to follow through on a permanent building."

Sheehan said beginning construction within 60 days wouldn't be necessary, "but we would have to have some specific indication that it is going to happen," such as "a signed contract, work already in progress, it depends on what they're capable of getting done between now and then, but we can't even discuss any of this if nobody is talking to us."

Michael said last week there are a number of other sources responsible for the elevated salt levels in Lake Colby, including private parking lots, other municipal and industrial properties near the lake, and the state's salting of state Route 86, which runs alongside the lake.

"By no means is the village the only potential source," Michael said. "I would hope the Lake Colby Association would take time to identify all the sources."

Chloride levels in Lake Colby in 2008 were 39 parts per million, according to testing by the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program, administered by the Paul Smith's Watershed Institute and requested by the Lake Colby Association, a shoreowners' group. This is more than 39 times the normal level in Adirondack lakes, according to the ALAP's January 2009 report. Levels of 10 ppm and higher are indicative of pollution.

Lake Colby Association member Lee Keet wrote a week-and-a-half ago in an opinion piece in the Enterprise that testing has been going on since 1999 and that testing in 2003 showed levels of 719 ppm in Colby Brook. The state and federal water quality standard for surface water is 250 ppm.

"Over 700 ppm in a brook running past the sand and salt pile is a smoking gun if there ever was one," Keet wrote. "Yes, Route 86 contributes to the salt with the excessive coverage the (state Department of Transportation) applies each winter, but other lakes with roadsides along them do not get to 39 ppm, or even close."

The Lake Colby Association is not a party to the lawsuit; however, some of its members, including Keet, are also Adirondack Council members, and Sheehan said the lawsuit was filed in response to concerns a number of Council members have had for years.

As for the sources of pollution, "I think we are reacting to what is the closest, largest and most immediate threat," Sheehan said late last week.

Sheehan and Keet said at the time the lawsuit was filed that high salt levels are having a number of negative effects on plants and animals in the lake, including killing off healthy weeds and the plankton that small crustaceans eat.

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