Protect the Adirondacks has been calling for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct a so-called “carry capacity” study. The group says the state agency has failed to comply with management plans requirements, and it has sued to require compliance.
Protect the Adirondacks Conservation Director and Counsel Christopher Amato tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley what a carrying capacity study is and why one is needed for the Saranac Lakes complex:
It's meant to assess the ability of a particular ecosystem, that could be either lands or bodies of water, to sustain different types of uses. So for something like a water body in the Adirondacks, what you would be looking at is what is the level of use, what types of uses are going on, what are the impacts of those uses? And finally, how are those impacts affecting the ecological health of this particular water body?
Protect the Adirondacks filed a lawsuit because the DEC apparently didn't comply with what you say is a mandated study, and you're now appealing a decision by the state supreme court to dismiss it based on the statute of limitations. What's your arguments there?
First of all, the management of all of the state's Forest Preserve lands in the Adirondack Park is governed by something called the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. And the master plan specifically directs that DEC 'shall' conduct carrying capacity studies as part of its management of Forest Preserve lands and waters. In addition to that, every unit of Forest Preserve has what's called a Unit Management Plan. The unit management plan for the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest, which the Saranac Lakes complex is part of that unit, specifically committed the DEC to conduct a carrying capacity of those lakes. Both the Master Plan and the Unit Management Plan are a mandatory commitment by the DEC to do the study, and they have not been willing to do it, even though the last budget that was passed by the state legislature and approved by the governor included an appropriation of $1 million specifically for DEC to do this study. And we have had multiple conversations with DEC saying you have all this money. Why aren't you doing this study? For reasons that still remain unclear to us, DEC has not taken that action.
Christopher, the clause that you cited in the Master Plan, if I read it right, does not mandate when or how often a carrying capacity should be completed. So why are you pressing for it now?
Generally, the way that these plans are set up, there's a period of five years during which the actions that are set forth in the Unit Management Plan are to be at least begun, if not completed. And those five years had elapsed, DEC had done nothing to undertake the carrying capacity study, and that's why, first, we sent a letter to DEC laying out our arguments and saying, listen, you know, we think you have a non-discretionary duty to undertake this study. You know, please let us know what your plans are. You know, do you have a schedule? Are you planning on doing it? And the response we got back was, basically, we're not interested in this.
What about other lake and river systems in the Adirondacks? Because this right now is focused on the Saranac Lakes complex.
Well, to the extent that other lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks are part of the Forest Preserve, they're subject to the same requirement in the Master Plan that a carrying capacity study be done. You know, we have focused on the Saranac Lakes complex because I think there's a widespread recognition, even on the part of DEC and APA, that this is a complex of interconnected water bodies that receives a very heavy level of recreational use. And you know that is something that can, for obvious reasons, lead to a number of different impacts: disturbance of wildlife, noise impacts, water pollution from outboard motors. You know, there's a range of impacts that can occur when water bodies are being heavily used to the point where the water body is no longer able to sustain that use without have suffering some sort of adverse impact.
How do you gauge overuse? I mean, how much use is going on in this area and why do you consider it to be overused?
There was concern about overuse just based on, you know, DEC's observations of what was going on in terms of how many people were out there, how many boats, what kind of impact that was having on people's experience of the Saranac Lakes. But the purpose of the carrying capacity study is to actually reduce it to some quantifiable things like measure the water quality, find out what the level of pollutants are in these lakes. Where is, you know, if there is pollution where is it coming from? Is there something that can be done to reduce the inflow of pollution? Where is, you know, what's the source of it? And, you know, there's a number of things that can be done to actually quantify the adverse impacts.
Chris, the Protect the Adirondacks group is currently awaiting a court date for oral argument in 2026 according to the press release. What's happening there? Can you give us an update on what's next?
Yes, so we filed our appeal and the state is now in the process of preparing their response to our appeal papers, our appellate brief. We will have an opportunity after that to file what's called a reply to the state. And once that happens, then the court will advise us of a date for oral argument, which most likely will be probably in the fall. You know, our preference is always to work cooperatively with the state agencies. You know, litigation is always absolutely our last resort. And we have reached out multiple times to the DEC about this. Even if they were to tell us, hey, yeah, we will do this study and you know we'll start it by such and such a date. You know, here's our plan for going forward. That would solve everything. We'd be happy with that. But so far, they just continued to be unwilling to commit to doing this study that they promised to do.
In response to an inquiry regarding Protect the Adirondack’s litigation, the New York State DEC said it “does not comment on pending litigation.”
