Letter from Vince Stayter

WQCC Focus Was Countywide

This is in response to WSC’s response to the recent editorial regarding the need to re-establish the Otsego County Water Quality Coordinating Committee.

Our past WQCC was a collaborative effort of various agencies concerned with the multitude of water issues facing our county. Under its aegis, it identified the need to protect Otsego Lake from septic run-off, and implemented the inspections and compliance needed for the 400 systems that WSC mentions. The various agencies comprising WQCC at that time brought to the table a wide range of knowledge and expertise that engendered a sharing of ideas that benefited more than just Otsego Lake. It also provided a well received outreach program open to any and all interested parties.

While every water body in the county has its own particular needs, it is disingenuous to assume that we focus only on Otsego Lake and its close environs. Our focus needs to be countywide; our water resources are finite and need to be addressed at the widest level. And that can be done—and well done, as it was in the past—by our county’s WQCC. Let’s all work together to bring it back. If WSC is interested enough to look to WQCC’s past work for its own use, then it should follow that WQCC can provide even more to the county in the future with the full support of the WSC.

Vince Stayter
Maryland, former member of the WQCC representing Goodyear Lake