Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District

The grants are through the State Department of Environmental Conservation‘s Water Quality Improvement program and Non-Agricultural Nonpoint Source Planning and Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Mapping Grant program.

Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District received $432,555 for streambank stabilization. This project will reduce erosion, sediment, and nutrients in the Chautauqua Lake Watershed.

A $105,000 grant will go toward implementing a county-wide roadside stabilization and hydroseeding program. This program will decrease roadside erosion to reduce the amount of sediment and nutrients in tributaries to Lake Erie.

The town of Chautauqua received a $30,000 grant to assess road and stream culvert crossings in the Chautauqua Lake watershed using the North American Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative framework and produce a culvert engineering design report for projects to address erosion caused by failing or inadequately sized culverts.

The Village of Lakewood received a $30,000 grant to complete a stormwater engineering study for the Chautauqua Mall Boulevard commercial corridor to reduce excessive stormwater runoff in the study area and to improve water quality entering Chautauqua Lake.

The town of North Harmony will receive a $30,000 grant to work with an engineer to develop a streambank stabilization engineering study of approximately 2,640 linear feet of stream corridor along Ball Creek. The engineering design report will identify areas of erosion and stream instability and identify potential management actions to reduce sediment and nutrient loading to Chautauqua Lake.

The town of Mina will receive a total of $90,000 for three projects. One will be to complete a stormwater retrofit engineering report to evaluate existing stormwater infrastructure and recommend stormwater retrofit practices. The project will reduce nutrient loading to Findley Lake.

They also will complete a comprehensive assessment of culverts in the Findley Lake watershed to identify any stream culverts that are undersized or failing. The project will reduce nutrients from erosion in tributaries to Findley Lake.

And the third project will be to complete an engineering study to assess the benefits of using in-waterbody controls for nutrients in Findley Lake. The report will evaluate existing nutrient loading conditions and recommend in-waterbody controls to reduce nutrient pollution.

Congressman Nick Langworthy speaking at Barcelona Harbor (February 15, 2023)

Congressman Nick Langworthy says the restoration of Barcelona Harbor is a top issue for him in Chautauqua County.

Langworthy, joined by Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel, Westfield Town Supervisor Martha Bills, and other officials, spoke on an eroded dock while being buffeted by high winds off Lake Erie in Barcelona Harbor.

Langworthy said the harbor was considered one of the few “safe harbors” on Lake Erie, but the Coast Guard removed that designation.

He said work needs to be done to get the harbor operational again, “And all of this is due to rising water levels and high winds in the Fall of 2019 that severely impacted this channel here and filled it in as you can see. And we’ll have some of the folks here share some of the specifics, because they live it every day. It’s increasingly shallow and it’s become all shoaled in, so we have to get this thing dredged and we have to get the funding in place. The viability of this harbor is at stake.”

$1.1 million in funding to dredge the harbor had been included in the Fiscal Year 2022 omnibus.

Langworthy said he hopes to have a meeting this week with the Army Corp of Engineers to discuss the timeline for dredging.

He said dredging is supposed to be done every 5 to 10 years with 2017 being the last time it was done in Barcelona, “But we’ve had extreme storms. And when you have extreme circumstances, you’ve got to change your model and we have to have a permanent solution, but we have to solve the short-term dilemma. And there’s too much debris here. We have to get this harbor opened back up so that we have a vibrant season ahead.”

County Executive Wendel said the harbor has gotten progressively worse since he took office in 2019 and that it’s at a short-term crisis point, “And this harbor is almost shut off right now. There was a safe harbor, if you look over my left shoulder, those markers have been taken down because this is no longer a safe harbor. You’re not able to get in. The Coast Guard, themselves, when they came in here a year or so ago to do an inspection dinged up one of their own props. And after that, they then declared that it’s not a safe harbor anymore, so this has been to the attention of everyone, but like anything else, it’s something we need to move on quicker.”

Wendel said commerce is at stake as well for the local fisheries, fishing charters, and dive charters that operate out of the harbor.

Dredging is scheduled to happen in July but town officials are working to get that moved up to May, depending on when fish are spawning. Wendel said with Lake Erie not being frozen, they’re hoping to see if it can be done as early as March so as not to impact the late Spring and Summer commercial fishing season.

Evan Zeller (photo by Ohio Attorney General’s Office)

The body found near Canadaway Creek on the shore of Lake Erie has been identified as an Ohio man

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office reports that 30-year old Evan Zeller of Sheffield Lake, Ohio has been identified as the victim. He was reported missing in November 2022 after he had gone kayaking on Lake Erie near the town where he lived.

Coordination between the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office and the Erie County Medical Examiner’s office led to the identification of Mr. Zeller.

The top 40 pros and top 40 co-anglers will compete in the event on Lake Erie. It’s considered the sport’s most lucrative event, awarding three fully-rigged boat packages, and it also determines the Lucas Oil Angler of the Year, the most prestigious title in walleye fishing.

The National Walleye Tour events are televised on the Pursuit Channel, the World Fishing Network and are available to stream on demand through several platforms.

The public is invited to attend the daily weigh-ins, and there will be a free kids fishing clinic after the weigh-in (about 4:30 p.m.) on Thursday, August 25th. Prior to the tournament, a community meet and greet is scheduled for August 21 at 5:00 p.m. in the field between the Clarion Hotel and Tim Hortons where the anglers will have a chance to show off their vessels and answer questions.

For more information about Dunkirk’s tournament, contact Festivals Director Ryan Hall at (716) 366-9886 or rhall@cityofdunkirk.com.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office reports 70-year old Fred Forsythe Jr. of Coudersport,

Pennsylvania was discovered on Friday in the town of Evans. Sheriff’s deputies say Forsythe, who was the captain of a fishing charter, was trying to bring a fish onto the boat when he lost his balance and fell into the Lake near Ripley.

Passengers on the boat were not familiar with how to operate the boat and were unable to get the boat turned around before Forsythe disappeared from the surface.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office said emergency crews responded to Barcelona Pier at 8:30 a.m. following a report of someone falling off a fishing charter boat.

The boat was a half-mile off shore when the incident took place. The Chautauqua County Water Emergency Team, New York State assets, United States Coast Guard, local emergency assets, and Pennsylvania Emergency teams searched the area Thursday but did not find the missing person.

The investigation is ongoing but no foul play is suspected.

DUNKIRK – The Chautauqua County Office of Emergency Services is monitoring the high levels of Lake Erie as it continues to rise.

Lake Erie is at levels 30 inches above the long term average level for the month of May. The high water level is due to persistent wet conditions and high stream flows this spring.

Nearly all the Great Lakes are currently seeing their daily levels higher than average, with some reaching a record high monthly mean levels for May.

Through the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, the Chautauqua County Office of Emergency Services has 10,000 unfilled sandbags as a precaution if Lake Erie continues to rise.

The sandbags and a filling machine will be stored in Dunkirk for rapid deployment if needed.

“With Memorial Day Weekend and the beginning of the summer season upon us, residents and visitors should be aware of high water levels while still enjoying all of the great activities in and around Lake Erie,” said George Borrello, Chautauqua County Executive. “I thank our partners at the state for their assistance in emergency preparedness and also our Federal partners including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for monitoring the situation.”

The Chautauqua County Office of Emergency Services will continue to monitor the lake levels and shoreline. The Lake Erie Water levels are expected to remain high into the summer season as all the Great Lakes are experiencing high water levels.

The committee will review a local law prohibiting the sale of personal cosmetic products containing microbeads in Chautauqua County. The law is similar to one also recently enacted in Erie County.

Microbeads are small – some times microscopic – plastic particles found in personal care products such as soaps and exfoliates. When used in a home, they enter the wastewater systems and eventually find their way into regional waterways, including Lake Erie – which has shown to have one of the highest concentrations of microbeads anywhere in North America.

Committee Chair George Borrello of Irving says the proposed ban makes sense, even though some have argued it should be dealt with at the state level, not the local level.

“There’s two parts to this ban. Number one – we can do something that is going to be effective in reducing the microbeads that are currently flowing into the lake every day. Number two – by passing a ban on the sale [of these products] I’m hoping to send a message to Albany that they need to address this issue.”

Last month Fredonia State professor Dr. Sherri Mason gave a presentation to the committee about the damaging effects that microbeads have had on the ecosystem.

Also during last month’s meeting, representatives from the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) questioned some of Dr. Mason’s findings, while also saying that any band should come from the state level and not the local level in order to ensure uniformity for companies that make the products. They also submitted for the record a memo detailing their concerns regrading the Dr. Mason’s research, as well as the proposed ban.

County Clerk Larry Barmore also said his office would incur a larger cost enforcing the ban, although Borrello feels there could be alternative enforcement methods that didn’t involve added cost to government.

If the committee passes the law, it will go to the County Legislature for its consideration. If the legislature approves the ban, it would then have to be subject to a public hearing before being signed by the county executive.

The Planning and Economic Development Committee begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday on the third floor of the Gerace Office Building in Mayville and is open to the public.

On Wednesday night the legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee heard from Fredonia State professor Dr. Sherri Mason, who’s been researching the impact that microbeads have had on the ecosystem of Lake Erie and other waterways.

Dr. Mason explained that microbeads are tiny, plastic particles used in healthcare products to help with the exfoliation process. She said that because the microbeads are plastic, they are not biodegradable and are so small that they pass through wastewater treatment facilities. She once they enter our waterways, they can be ingested by animals and because many contain toxic chemicals, including BPA, they are considered harmful.

Dr. Sherri Mason

“These chemicals, while they are incorporated into the plastic material, are not chemically bound to the plastic,” Dr. Mason explained. “BPA got quite a bit of press because of the fact that it’s well known that it leaches out from the plastic. So a soup can, as it’s sitting on a store shelf, if it is lined in plastic, then the BPA from within that plastic will leach into the soup. And this was the biggest concern with baby bottles and so it was technically banned in baby bottles. We also know that when plastic is sitting in the water, it acts as a chemical sponge [absorbing various toxic chemicals that may be present].”

Dr. Mason said that while the micro beads can be harmful to aquatic life, they can also be harmful to humans who may eat fish that have ingested microbeads. And she said her findings have shown that nearly all species of fish that are pulled from the lake have tested positive for containing chemicals associated with ingesting microbeads.

“Every species that we’ve looked at has had plastic in it. Every species,” Dr. Mason said. “All 25 fish species and the double crested cormorant, that predominantly feeds off these fish, have had plastic in it.”

While Dr. Mason said her research illustrates why it is important to ban products containing microbeads as soon as possible, not everyone is convinced. Also speaking last night were representatives from the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), a lobbying group that represents the interests of the cosmetic and health industries. A consultant with the group, Dr. Ian Davies, said he has some concerns with Mason’s findings.

“I think that a lot of the research that’s been conducted, the results have been misinterpreted and have been quite misleading,” Dr. Davies said. “The types of microbeads that have generally been found, there really hasn’t been enough data to link them back to our ingredients. For example, our materials are fragments, and not – in fact – spherical particles.”

The PCPC also submitted a written comments providing a detailed list of concerns they had with the research to be put on the record and reviewed by lawmakers.

County Clerk Larry Barmore, right, talks with members of the county’s planning and economic development committee on Wednesday night.

County Clerk Larry Barmore also spoke during the meeting, saying such a ban would have to be enforced by his office’s Department of Weights and Measures, which could lead to an additional cost to the county of $60,000 to $75,000 a year. However, committee chairman George Borello of Hanover said that there could be alternative enforcement methods that didn’t involve added cost to government, such as working with watchdog groups as well as interns to keep an eye out for the products.

Borrello, who’s already gone on the record of favoring a ban, told WRFA this was just the first steps in the process – although he favors acting on doing something sooner rather than later.

“I’m hoping that we can put something together to possible introduce next month,” Borrello said. “But at the end of the day its my hope to do our due diligence and create something that is effective. We could very easily create some piece of feel-good legislation that isn’t very enforceable and doesn’t have any effect. I have no interest in doing that. I want to have something that we can actually work with and that gives us the opportunity to reduce the amount of microbeads going into the lake.”

The County Legislature has the option to enact its own ban on the sale of the microbead products, similar to what Erie County has done. It can also approve a motion requesting lawmakers in Albany initiate a state-wide ban.

Dr. Sherri Mason of Fredonia State presents her findings on the impact microbeads have on Lake Erie during a Wednesday night’s meeting of the legislature’s planning and economic development committee.

CHAUTAUQUA LAKE BOAT FIRE

On Saturday just before noon, the patrol came upon a vessel with smoke and flames coming from the back of the boat while on routine patrol of Chautauqua Lake near Bemus Point. All six occupants of the boat were able to exit the vessel onto a nearby pontoon and none were injured. The Bemus Point Fire Department helped to extinguish the fire and the boat was towed to shore at Long Point State Park. The Chautauqua County HAZMAT Team was also called to the scene to clean up leaking fuel from damaged vessel. The owner of the boat was identified as Edward Guy of Willoughby, OH – who said an electrical malfunction caused the fire.

LAKE ERIE FISHING BOAT RESCUE

Image courtesy of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office.

Meanwhile four men were rescued Sunday after their 20-foot fishing boat began taking on water on Lake Erie near Dunkirk. Chautauqua County sheriff’s deputies say the incident happened about 1:30 p.m. The boat was said to be approximately two miles off shore and east of the City of Dunkirk before dispatch lost contact with the victims. The Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit conducted a search and eventually found the boat approximately four miles off shore in the Town of Sheridan. The boat was submerged over its bow and taking on further water. The four victims were wearing personal floatation devices and were safely transferred to the Sheriff’s Marine vessel. Attempts were make to salvage the boat but were unsuccessful and the boat had to be let go. The four victims were uninjured and safely transported to Dunkirk City Pier.

PITTSBURGH MAN RESCUED AFTER CATAMARAN CAPSIZES

Sheriff deputies were busy early Friday night helping a distressed boater two miles from the Shores of Lake Erie in the town of Portland. The sheriff’s water patrol began a search for catamaran operator Robert Wilson of Pittsburgh when he failed to report to shore just after 6 p.m. At about 8:30 pm he was located sitting on top of his overturned catamaran. Sheriff’s Marine unit was able to safely rescue Wilson and transport him to Dunkirk Harbor where he was medically checked and turned over to family members.

The Sheriff’s Office reminds boaters that everyone on board any vessel including kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards must have a proper personal floatation device (“life jacket”) on board the vessel. It is also recommended to make a “float plan” to advise friends/family of the details of your trip, safety equipment, and boat description.