Annual Lake Cleanup Initiates Further Conversation, Concerns

By KRISTIAN CONNOLLYCOOPERSTOWN

It’s a scene common to junk yards and landfills across the globe. Picture a pile containing a small, rusted propane tank; half a six-foot-long water tank, cut lengthwise; a single sawhorse; various lengths of corroding pipe; roughly 18 tires of various sizes; planks, boards, and other wood and metal debris of different shapes and sizes; multiple lengths of rope. Nearly a half-ton of detritus.

Now picture those objects in Otsego Lake. This was the case until this past Sunday, August 11, when lakeside property owners and dedicated volunteers from the Otsego Lake Association cleaned up the shoreline and removed all of that waste during the OLA’s annual “Otsego Lake Cleanup Day.”

Gathered at the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station’s boathouse afterward, researcher and OLA Director for the Town of Otsego Paul Lord observed simply, “Some things that you think wouldn’t end up in the lake do.”

Using a barge supplied by the BFS, the OLA transported all the collected materials to the north side of Three Mile Point. From there, the Village of Cooperstown hauled the majority to the county transfer station, with scrap metal headed to a scrap yard, according to Village Public Works Superintendent Mitch Hotaling.