In the last month we've seen the Department of Environmental Conservation respond within hours to spills of hydraulic fluid and fuel oil in Owasco Lake. Clearly these contaminants are threats to the lake and its inhabitants.

To our minds, the uncontrolled release of phosphorus by the Groton sewage treatment plant into the Owasco Inlet, year after year, has to be seen as a disaster, too. In a single day last month, the Soil & Water Conservation District harvester pulled 20 tons of the resulting weeds out of the south end of the lake.

Imagine the DEC showing up for any other spill a year late and then announcing that it can't be contained for four years. It's unthinkable. And yet that is what the draft SPDES permit for the plant proposes.

This draft permit was to have been issued last July, so we've already lost another year to pollution. It's hard to tell which is worse, that the DEC is expected to operate with half a staff or that the Village of Groton is expected to foot the bill for this lack of oversight.

Working with both parties, we'd like to see the DEC recommendation of two pounds per day for phosphorus put into effect now.

If you value Owasco Lake - as your reservoir, as a place of recreation or as a stimulus to the economy - you have until Aug. 8 to ask the DEC to apply its own standard without delay. Address your letter to John Merriman, DEC, 1285 Fisher Ave., Cortland, NY 13045-1090.

Those of us who draw water from the lake fear that the only thing standing between our faucets and the flushing in Groton is this outdated and under-regulated plant, which violated its existing permit 63 times between January 2004 and April 2008 - and that's only testing once a month!

Pamela Sullivan and Judy LeFever

Auburn

Co-founders of Owasco Lakefront Owners Association