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» PART 2 SATURDAY: Salt in Lake Colby could have multiple sources » PART 3 MONDAY: Joint sand/ salt shed not likely any time soon

SARANAC LAKE - Although there is debate about the causes of the elevated salt levels in Lake Colby, tests by both the village and the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith's College show chloride levels to be higher in Saranac Lake-area lakes than other Adirondack lakes, highest in Lake Colby and starkly higher in a brook near the village's uncovered sand pile.

The pile, at the village highway garage on Van Buren Street, contains about 5 percent salt and sits near a small brook that runs into Lake Colby. Rain hitting the pile drains down into the brook. The Adirondack Council has threatened to sue the village by mid-August if the pile isn't moved or covered. Village officials are currently working with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to do this.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has set a maximum of 250 parts per million for chloride, considering it a secondary contaminant in drinking water. Only the brook and a nearby culvert have ever tested close to or above this level. However, studies have found negative effects on plankton and algae, which larger animals such as fish eat, at much lower levels.

The Council's threat came about a month after the AWI released the results of tests done on two rainy days in late March and early April, when rain and snowmelt were running down into the brook. Eight samples were taken, and an average chloride level of 376.25 ppm was found. The AWI was established by the Saranac Lake-based environmental group the Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks and has been testing Lake Colby since 2003 as part of its Adirondack Lake Assessment program.

In September 2008, village Department of Public Works employees took samples from the railroad culvert, which is downstream from the town of Harrietstown's uncovered sand pile on John Munn Road and before the village's, and also the Van Buren culvert, which borders the village garage property further downstream from the village's pile, said DPW Superintendent Robert Martin. The chloride level was 260 ppm in the Van Buren culvert and 110 ppm by the railroad bridge.

AWI volunteer water stewards took four samples from the middle of the lake, a meter-and-a-half deep, over the course of 2008. The average was 39 ppm.

"Most sampling is done out in the middle at the deephole, so you get a mix of the whole lake, not just something that's coming in by the shore," said Michael D'Angelo, environmental chemist at the AWI.

The village collected three more samples from Colby, closer to shore: from the Lake Colby Beach, from a culvert north of the beach a little past Adirondack Medical Center and from a bay just north of the railroad tracks, Martin said. The beach tested at 49 ppm, the other two at 50 ppm.

AWI tests in the middle of the lake showed a mean of 38 ppm in three samples in 2007, 46 ppm in one sample in 2006 and a mean of 48 ppm in two 2004 samples. Tests in 2007 showed 92 ppm in the brook and 48 ppm by the railroad bridge. Three samples were taken from the brook in 2005 and three in 2004, with means of 159 and 122 ppm respectively. Two samples from the brook in 2003 had a mean of 594.

The average lake in the Adirondacks has less than 1 ppm chloride, D'Angelo said. He compared Lake Colby to the Cascade lakes in Keene and Barnum Pond in Paul Smiths, both of which, like Lake Colby, are next to state highways that the state Department of Transportation salts in the winter and both of which have high chloride levels. The state uses pure salt, unlike localities, which use a mixture that is mostly sand.

The village also took samples from Lake Flower, Ampersand Bay in Lower Saranac Lake, McKenzie Pond and a marsh off John Munn Road on the opposite side of the street from the town highway garage. They came back at 12, 11, 2.1 and less than .1 ppm chloride, respectively.

The AWI's 2008 tests of Lower Saranac Lake showed an average of 12 ppm, and Lake Kiwassa averaged 9.2 ppm.

The village's samples were tested by Life Science Laboratories Inc., at its Waddington location; LSL is certified in New York and eight other states. The AWI's samples were analyzed by AWI staff at Paul Smith's College. The last study of the Van Buren tributary was, however, certified by a state-licensed laboratory in Plattsburgh, according to the AWI report.

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Contact Nathan Brown at (518) 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.