Sewer/Lake Quality Project

Findley Lake is the westernmost lake in New York State and is fed primarily from underground springs as well as surface runoff from five tributaries within its 3,000 acre watershed. The lake was created from two ponds that were dammed up at their north outlet by Alexander Findley in 1815. Summer lake levels are maintained by the Findley Lake Watershed Foundation at about 1,420 feet above mean sea level and lowered in the winter using a mechanical gate at the spillway.

Findley Lake, like all natural lakes, has a life cycle or aging process that moves it from open water to become a wetland and then dry land. Humans can greatly accelerate the aging process by adding unnatural levels of nutrients to the lake’s water. Once nutrients enter the lake, they remain and are the fertilizer for weed growth and algal blooms.

Findley Lake has been studied extensively and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has designated Findley Lake as an impaired water body. In a July 7, 2022 letter to the Town of Mina, Melanie Stein, P.E. with DEC, states that the 2008 “Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for Phosphorus in Findley Lake” set phosphorus goals and that “the TMDL requires a 100 percent reduction in phosphorus loading from residential septic systems. The report recommends a systemic approach, such as the formation of a sewer district and the discharge of treated wastewater outside of the watershed.”

In 2022, the Town of Mina engaged Barton & Loguidice to prepare a Sewer District Preliminary Engineering Report. The report dated June 2022 and a separate summary entitled “Findley Lake Sewer District – Preliminary Engineering Report Presentation” dated June 21, 2022 are included in the documents in this section along with a copy of the above mentioned letter from Melanie Stein from DEC. Additionally, the Findley Lake Watershed Foundation engaged Princeton Hydro to perform water quality monitoring and provide lake management recommendations. The December 2021 Princeton Hydro report entitled “Findley Lake – Lake Evaluation and Recommendations” is also included in this section.