Did you know that there is only one full time inspector to cover the entire 208 square mile watershed of Owasco Lake? Put in simple terms that is like having:

·       one person to inspect the entire land area of the City of Auburn and expecting it to be done four times every month, year round, except there are more road miles (over 480 miles) in the watershed

·       one person walking from Auburn to Boston and then back to Albany

Did you know that the Auburn City Budget for 2011, if adopted as presented, eliminates the cooperative Water Testing Program between the City and the Owasco Watershed Lake Association (OWLA)? That is like:

·        removing the radar from a fleet of  aircraft

·        then hiring one maintenance inspector to keep the whole fleet safe

·        making plans to fly the fleet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

·        keeping forty-four thousand (44,000) people on the aircraft in the air at all times

Owasco lake is the drinking water for 44,000 people. The watershed is almost 20 times bigger than the lake itself. 

Did you know that the current inspection program was judged inadequate by the multi-jurisdictional committee overseeing the inspection program? Did you know the expanded program could be greatly improved if people drinking the water paid only pennies more?  

·        Raising the rate by 1.5 cents per 750 gallons would generate the additional funds ($30,000) required to add inspectors to cover the spring and fall when the majority of the run-off occurs.  

·        Customers now pay 1.68 for an amount equivalent to 750 gallons of water. Three cents of that amount ($.03) now is spent on inspection. Astonishingly, that is the amount again proposed in the 2011 budget.

Visit www.owascolake.org and find out more......It's your drinking water, you take it in, help us take it on. Get informed.