Horseshoe Lake

Update from DEC, June 7:

While the spill is contained to the inlet with no impact on the lake, the contractor continues to skim diesel fuel from the surface of the water. DEC’s oversight of the cleanup efforts will continue until the cleanup is complete. 

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The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is investigating a possible petroleum spill into the inlet on the west side of Horseshoe Lake in the Town of Stafford.

According to Jeff Wernick of the DEC press office in Albany, agency personnel on Saturday responded to a report of fumes and a spill, and immediately deployed containment booms, pads and a vacuum truck to skim diesel fuel from the surface of the water.

Crews from T&R Environmental of Painted Post are conducting the cleanup effort. Booms also have been set up in a ditch on nearby Seven Springs Road, not far from the intersection of Clinton Street Road in the Town of Batavia.

“The spill is currently contained and DEC’s oversight of the cleanup efforts will continue until the cleanup is complete,” Wernick said. “DEC’s investigation into the cause and amount of the spill is ongoing.”

Photo at top: View from Horseshoe Lake Road near the entrance of West Lake Road of the environmental remediation underway in response to a chemical spill; bottom, containment booms in a ditch on Seven Springs Road. Photos by Mike Pettinella.

At about 1:30 p.m. today a Stafford resident thought he saw a dog fall through the ice at Horseshoe Lake and after the dog didn't reemerge from the water, he called emergency dispatch.

Stafford fire along with the water rescue team from City of Batavia fire responded but the prospects appeared grim. The dog was nowhere to be seen, there was no motion in the area where the dog reportedly went in, and 15 minutes may have already passed.

Still, the water rescue team went about its task of inflating its boats and slipping into cold water gear.

Then a call came over the radio, "tell them not to go into the water yet."

A second later, a deputy received a phone call, "It's not a dog?" he said to the person who called him.

It turns out, another resident has been aware of what was going on all along but wasn't aware emergency crews had been dispatched. Mike Mullen, a retired City firefighter, had seen the animal out on the frozen lake and spied it through his binoculars. His wife grabbed her camera and a long lens and took pictures. It was an otter eating a fish.

Every once in a while, the otter would dive back in the water with its giant catch of the day and then come back up on the ice to surface to feast some more.

"Without binoculars, it would look like a dog struggling," Mullen said.

When his wife had to leave the house a short time later, she spotted the police and fire response and Mullen came out with the camera, with its LCD screen on the back to show the pictures, and let everybody know, "it's just an otter."

(Initial Post) (Mobile App users, click here to view the video)

It's taken a year to get the proper permits, said engineer Steve Mountain, but some time this month, crews should start dredging Horseshoe Lake in Stafford.

The lake is part of a private recreational and residential community.

Approximately 1,500 cubic yards of silty lake bed will be removed from an existing 4,000-square-foot swimming area and a new boat launch area on the northeast cove of the lake. 

The swimming area will be back-filled with four inches of pea gravel and four inches of sand.

To help fight an aquatic weed problem, the lake level will be lowered about eight feet for the winter, which should kill off weeds along the shore.

"It was an extremely long permitting process," Mountain said.

Photo submitted by Steve Tufts, taken at Horseshoe Lake in Stafford. For a larger version, click here.