| Silver Lake | |
|---|---|
 Silver Lake with a warning sign (Pre-Cleanup) | |
  Silver Lake  Silver Lake | |
| Location | Pittsfield, Massachusetts |
| Coordinates | 42°27′03″N73°14′25″W / 42.45083°N 73.24028°W |
| Type | lake |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface area | 26 acres (11 ha) |
| Max. depth | 30 ft (9.1 m) |
| Surface elevation | 974 ft (297 m)< [1] |
Silver Lake is a lake in Pittsfield, Massachusetts that has had environmental concerns and been subject to a clean-up effort by both the city of Pittsfield and the EPA.
Silver Lake is bounded to north by Silver Lake Boulevard and Fourth Street, and the west and south by residential and commercial properties. It is approximately 26 acres (11 ha) large with a maximum water depth of about 30 feet (9.1 m). [2]
The lake currently receives storm water flow from several City outfalls and one NPDES-permitted outfall. The NPDES-permitted outfall receives storm water from a portion of the GE Plant Area that has been transferred to PEDA. Silver Lake drains to the Housatonic River by an underground 48-inch (120 cm) diameter, concrete, culvert pipe located near the intersection of Fenn Street and East Street. [3] Two significant oil spills have occurred in the lake, and garbage, sewage and PCBs have been dumped into it. The lake caught fire in 1923 due to the pollution. [4]
The long-polluted lake has undergone a massive cleanup (July 2012 – December 2013) and has opened as a park to the public with water safe enough for activities like fishing and boating. [5] Recently re-mediated Silver Lake is a recreational asset to the city, according to local officials, fit for picnics, boating and fishing. [6] GE submits annual reports regarding the details of all of the inspection, monitoring and maintenance activities that occurred within the Silver Lake Area Removal Action Area over the course of a given year.
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield’s population was 43,927 at the 2020 census. Although its population has declined in recent decades, Pittsfield remains the third-largest municipality in Western Massachusetts, behind only Springfield and Chicopee.
Stormwater, also written storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil (infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed land surface in ponds and puddles, evaporate back into the atmosphere, or contribute to surface runoff. Most runoff is conveyed directly as surface water to nearby streams, rivers or other large water bodies without treatment.
Lee is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, metropolitan statistical area. The population was 5,788 at the 2020 census. Lee, which includes the villages of South and East Lee, is part of the Berkshires resort area.
The Housatonic River is a river, approximately 149 miles (240 km) long, in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United States. It flows south to southeast, and drains about 1,950 square miles (5,100 km2) of southwestern Connecticut into Long Island Sound.
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibilities of the states in addressing pollution and providing assistance to states to do so, including funding for publicly owned treatment works for the improvement of wastewater treatment; and maintaining the integrity of wetlands.
Grand Lake St. Marys State Park is a public recreation area located on 13,500-acre (5,500 ha) Grand Lake in Mercer and Auglaize counties, Ohio. Grand Lake is the largest inland lake in Ohio in terms of area, but is shallow, with an average depth of only 5–7 feet (1.5–2.1 m). The state park is open for year-round recreation, including boating, fishing, swimming and hunting. The park consists of the lake and park facilities scattered all around the shore intermingled with private property and a facility operated by Wright State University. It is west of St. Marys, and southeast of Celina, 23 miles (37 km) southwest of Lima in the northwestern part of the state.
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Water quality laws govern the protection of water resources for human health and the environment. Water quality laws are legal standards or requirements governing water quality, that is, the concentrations of water pollutants in some regulated volume of water. Such standards are generally expressed as levels of a specific water pollutants that are deemed acceptable in the water volume, and are generally designed relative to the water's intended use - whether for human consumption, industrial or domestic use, recreation, or as aquatic habitat. Additionally, these laws provide regulations on the alteration of the chemical, physical, radiological, and biological characteristics of water resources. Regulatory efforts may include identifying and categorizing water pollutants, dictating acceptable pollutant concentrations in water resources, and limiting pollutant discharges from effluent sources. Regulatory areas include sewage treatment and disposal, industrial and agricultural waste water management, and control of surface runoff from construction sites and urban environments. Water quality laws provides the foundation for regulations in water standards, monitoring, required inspections and permits, and enforcement. These laws may be modified to meet current needs and priorities.
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Lake Zoar is a reservoir on the Housatonic River in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was formed by the completion of the Stevenson Dam, which flooded an area of Oxford and Stevenson named "Pleasantvale" or "Pleasant Vale". "Connecticut's Lakes Reflect Our History, Present". Retrieved 2018-04-02. The towns of Monroe, Newtown, Oxford, and Southbury border Lake Zoar. The name Zoar originates from corner of Newtown and Monroe that once called itself Zoar after the Biblical city Zoara near the Dead Sea.
Point source water pollution comes from discrete conveyances and alters the chemical, biological, and physical characteristics of water. In the United States, it is largely regulated by the Clean Water Act (CWA). Among other things, the Act requires dischargers to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to legally discharge pollutants into a water body. However, point source pollution remains an issue in some water bodies, due to some limitations of the Act. Consequently, other regulatory approaches have emerged, such as water quality trading and voluntary community-level efforts.
Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 568 U.S. 78 (2013), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper challenged the Los Angeles County Flood Control District (District) for violating the terms of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit as shown in water quality measurements from monitoring stations within the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. The Supreme Court, by a unanimous 9-0 vote, reversed and remanded the Ninth Circuit's ruling on the grounds that the flow of water from an improved portion of a navigable waterway into an unimproved portion of the same waterway does not qualify as a "discharge of a pollutant" under the Clean Water Act.
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