Help sought for Cortlandt Lake bacteria
Philipstown Supervisor John Van Tassel agreed on July 10 to help arrange a meeting with Cortlandt and Putnam Valley officials over the fecal coliform levels that have forced the closure of the beach at Cortlandt Lake in Continental Village.
Putnam County announced last month the closure of beaches at Cortlandt Lake and 13 other water bodies due to the presence of bacteria and harmful algal blooms. Most of Cortlandt Lake is located in Philipstown and Cortlandt, with a small section in Putnam Valley.
Jesse Lubbers, a member of the Continental Village Park District board, told the Town Board that the Putnam Department of Health, during testing before Memorial Day, found fecal coliform levels at 30 times the limit considered safe for recreational use.
Water discharging into Cortlandt Lake from Canopus Creek and Spy Pond also tested high for fecal coliform, at 10 times the limit, but the contamination “was concentrated at the beach where people go,” said Lubbers.
Health officials believe that Cortlandt Lake’s bacteria levels are caused by failing septic systems at homes around the lake, said Lubbers. Many of those homes were built as summer cottages but are now used year-round, he said.
“I have been soliciting advice from the Hudson Highlands Land Trust and others to see if we can get in a room” to discuss the source of the contamination and how it can be fixed, he said.
Hudson Highlands Reserve
The Town Board held off on giving its consent to the Hudson Highlands Reserve Sewage Works Corp., a private entity created to operate the sewer system serving 23 residences and a community space at the development off Route 9.
Philipstown’s consent is required under state law. Van Tassel said he wanted the town engineer, Ron Gainer, to review the plans. The town attorney, Steve Gaba, noted that private systems are often “set up to fail and the town winds up having to go in and take over a water system or a sewer system. That’s an expensive and difficult proposition.”
Horton Road LLC, the developer, received Planning Board approval in March to construct homes on a 210-acre property located between Horton Road and East Mountain Road North, with 79 percent of the land set aside as open space. The homes will be clustered on 31 acres, along with two existing residences, and will be accessed from a new road.
Route 9D sidewalks
Van Tassel said he met with state and local officials about adding sidewalks to Route 9D between the Village of Cold Spring line and Little Stony Point Park. He noted the blacktop that begins north of Haldane’s tennis courts is in “rough shape.”
One of the agencies represented at the meeting, the state Department of Transportation, said it lacks funding, and Van Tassel said the response from a state parks representative “disappointed” him. The Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail was invited but no one attended, he said. “We did get some ideas for grants, but solutions are a long way off,” he said.
