Todd Hitz, Environmental Specialist thitz@srbc.net
Paula Ballaron, Project Review Coordinator
John Graham, Civil Engineer

This letter is in regards to the Song Mountain ski resort in Preble NY. I believe that they have made an application to you for a permit to run a high volume well. I represent the Song Lake Property Owners Association. The SLPOA has been in existence for over 40 years and represents 91 families on Song Lake as well as the Girl Scouts Camp Hoover. We are all opposed to the high volume well installed by Song Mountain in violation of just about every law, rule and code possible. Song Mountain did not adhere to the proper procedure of preparing a Site Plan or an environmental impact study. They just installed the well without concern for any consequences to either Song or Crooked lake or any of the homeowners wells in the area. Song Mountain has been incredibly arrogant in there complete lack of local concerns. At a meeting of the Preble Zoning Board of Appeals on 12/30/98 Songs lawyer, Scott Chatfield from Tully told the board that even if the board found Song Mountain in violation they would continue to use the well because their only concern was profit.

Some specific issues and comments made by Song Mountain at the 12/30/98 ZBA meeting.

Song Mountain claimed they had permission from the SRBC to pump 60,000 gallons per day. (Bill Mayo Song Mountain GM)

Song Mountain claimed they would only pump 60,000 per day. Three days later on 1/2/99 Song Mountain ran the well for 8 hours during the night to refill there one million gallon snow making pond that had run dry. The pump runs at 1,000 GPM.

This is a total of 480,000 gallons!

It was pumped in just one day!

At the meeting they said they designed the well based on there consumption of 1,000 GPM when all on there snow making guns are in use. They would use the well to continuously refill the holding pond while making snow. Obviously this far exceeds there claim of only 60,000 gallons per day. They could do that in one hours use.

Song Mountain has claimed in newspaper articles that the water from this well is coming from the aquifer, not the lakes (Song and Crooked). In his report William M. Kappel from the USGS (607-266-0217) stated that a well test run on 12/21/98 showed a water temp of 45 degrees and that this showed that the water came from the lakes, groundwater or a small stream that comes down Song Mountain. (NOT from the aquifer). In addition the stream mentioned is the one that feeds the snow making pond/dam and little if any has escaped from it. Also we have been in a drought with little rain or snow before this test. The test ran 12 hours and almost 3/4 million gallons were pumped. The obvious conclusion is that the well is drawing from the lakes and not from the aquifer.

Song and Crooked may be connected underground and this well is between both lakes less than 500 foot from either. There are about 110 homes on Song as well as Camp Hoover, the girl scout camp. Crooked has fewer homes but in addition there are dozens of homes within a threat distance from this well. Many homes have driven wells of less than 25 feet. Most of the drilled wells are 40 feet with some at 60 feet. The extreme high volume of Song Mountain snow making well threatens several hundred families water supplies as well as BOTH lakes.

PROBLEM WITH THE WELL PLACEMENT.

If Song Mountain did the proper Site Review they would have learned that they placed the well in what I will call, for lack of a better term, a flood plane. In the spring of 1995 the above mentioned stream overflowed its banks and ran for 40 days across the field where the well is. The well is smack dab in the middle of that. The concern is a recurrence of this could contaminate the aquifer by eroding the ground between the well hole and the well casing.

Could this happen again? My guess is it will happen this coming spring!

When Song Mountain ran the 10 inch pipe from the well up to the pond they ran it in the stream bed! They used a large tracked excavator and dug a ditch several feet wide next to, across and through the stream bed. They destroyed a ten foot wide swath of trees that would have held the earth in a spring flood. Doing this is a violation of DEC rules and of course they did not check with the DEC nor bother to get a permit.

The Snow making pond is made by damning of the stream next to a road that goes up Song Mountain. The locals refer to the dam as the 'mashed potato dam' due to its construction. From the dam the stream runs down several hundred feet to a cross road and goes under the road through culverts. A hundred feet or so downstream from the road it makes a 90 degree turn to the north, goes under another road and then into Crooked lake. In 1995 the dam broke and water and debris ran down, damned the culvert, ran over the road, broke over the bank at the 90 degree turn and out into the field over where the well is now and then into Song lake.

This spring the runoff will likely carry mud and debris (cut while digging the trench in the stream bed) down to and damming the culvert, over running the road and into the field where the well is and possibly contaminating the aquifer.

HISTORY

Last year under previous management Song Mountain let e-coli bacteria get into the drinking water of Song Mountain and one of the homes by the stream. This caused 1,200 people to go to the hospital. Naturally we are concerned that their sewage treatment pond may also get to the big well and contaminate the aquifer.

CONCLUSION

Song Mountain did not get Site approval, Zoning approval, DEC approval, SRBC approval or use good common sense in all matters concerning this well. It is one of the worst ideas on every count that anyone could possibly conceive. Song Mountain seems to be deaf to the potential disaster and is only concerned with profit. I fear that if unchecked we may find ourselves holding the bag after the disaster happens. Song Mountain would go bankrupt. Both Song and Crooked lakes would be destroyed. Hundreds of wells in the area contaminated for GOD knows how long. 60 Minutes would do a piece examining how it all happened and why somebody didn't do something to stop it when they could.

We NEED HELP. This well should be removed and the hole plugged before disaster strikes. It certainly should NOT receive a permit from the SRVC.

Sincerely

Frank Hogg