Lake George Waterkeeper History

In 2002, the FUND for Lake George had been funding and collecting research data for over twenty years and was concerned about the downward trend in water quality. The Board of the FUND believed other tools were needed to help the existing organizations and agencies working towards the protection of the lake. After searching and consulting, the FUND utilized the approach of the internationally successful Waterkeeper Alliance as the best fit and model for Lake George. In 2002, the FUND for Lake George was awarded the 85th license from the Waterkeeper Alliance and the Lake George Waterkeeper program was launched. The Lake George Waterkeeper is a program of the Fund for Lake George.

The Waterkeeper Alliance is the fastest growing environmental organization in the world with currently over 175 water bodies with a designated waterkeeper. The Waterkeeper movement was started by a group of commercial fisherman and residents on the Hudson River in the 1960's who were impacted by pollution from a Penn Central plant. But it was an individual, Robert Boyle (an avid fisherman and writer for Sports Illustrated), who suggested to not fight the polluters with property destruction, but to fight the polluters with the application of existing laws. "We shouldn't be talking about breaking the law, we should be talking about enforcing it", were his words. He had researched an old law, the "Rivers and Habors Act of 1888", that remained valid and made it illegal to pollute any waterway in the United States and provided for high penalties and included a bounty provision allowing anyone who turned in a polluter to keep half of the fine. This group used the law fund the pursuit of other polluters on the Hudson and started the Hudson Riverkeeper. This is the basis of the Waterkeeper movement - the application of existing laws to protect our natural resources for the good of the general public. This is the basis of our democracy - equal application of the law.

The basis of success of the Waterkeeper organization is the "bottoms up" approach - that each Waterkeeper is responsible for being the spokesperson for their particular watershed and determining the best approach for protection. Each program operates on its own funding without support from the Waterkeeper Alliance, which provides no direction on decision making within each watershed.

As Waterkeepers, we base our decisions for watershed protection based on scientific data, collected research, engineering principles and the application of existing laws. We are a resource for the watershed - to interact with decision makers and citizens focusing on water quality protection and where concerned citizens can report violations ot impairments to waterbodies, potential non-compliant activities or determine potential impacts of proposed policies or projects and feel confident something will be done to address their concerns.

The Lake George Waterkeeper is Chris Navitsky, a licensed professional engineer. Chris utilizes his extensive experience from 16 years as a professional engineering consultant to benefit and defend the natural public trust resources and water quality of the Lake George watershed. Based on the strength of his experiences, Chris is extremely active at the local level of project review in the basin and attends many Town, Planning and Zoning Board meetings. Chris' focus is to reduce the impacts to water quality and the Lake George watershed through the implementation of low impact development standards, mimicking the natural hydrologic cycle and reducing the level of disturbance and alteration associated with proposals.

The Waterkeeper has provided services to the Towns around the Lake George basins with assessments of watershed impacts from projects and events, provide testimony at public hearings and design recommendations for public facilities.

In 2006, Dawn Keppler joined the Lake George Waterkeeper as the Stream Assessment Project Coordinator. Dawn managed the most comprehensive stream assessment study in the Lake George watershed in 2007, studying over 40 streams. Her work will be expanded in 2008. Dawn has a BA in Environmental Science and Policy for the University of Southern Maine and a Masters degree in Biology from Buffalo State College.

In 2008, Kathy Bozony joined the Lake George Waterkeeper as the Natural Resource Specialist. Kathy has a degree in Environmental Sciences from Paul Smith's College and has previously worked for the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and the Lake George Association.

The Waterkeeper is active in several committees including the Lake George Watershed Conference, Warren County Water Quality Strategic Committee, the Adirondack Water Quality Conference Committee and the Silver Bay Master Plan Committee. The Waterkeeper is a resource for citizens in the Lake George watershed and will respond to citizens and help guide them to proper authorities to assess concerns.