The Lake George Park Commission the Commissioners unanimously voted yesterday to approve the final regulations for a Mandatory Inspection and Decontamination Program for Lake George.

The regulations will be filed with the Secretary of State and the program, which will apply to all trailered vessels, will begin May 15, 2014.

The new invasives regulation, comes on the heels of the announcement of similar regulations proposed for all DEC boat launches and fishing access sites.

Any time before May 15th, boaters can launch their boat on the Lake as usual. After May 15th, all boats will have to be inspected at one of six regional inspection stations.  If your boat passes inspection as ‘Clean, Drained, and Dry’ then it will be sealed to your trailer and you can continue to your launch facility. Boats that do not meet the ‘Clean, Drained, and Dry’ standard will be directed to the unit on high-pressure hot water facility for decontamination before being sealed to your trailer.

The launch sites around the lake will be responsible for checking for seals, removing them from boats and then re-sealing your boat as you leave the lake.  If you don’t go anywhere else – and your seal stays intact – you can just keep launching without additional inspections.  If however, you take your boat to another waterbody and then return, you will have to go through the inspection process again.

The Lake George Park Commission is working on a new website and outreach materials. Lake George has been struggling with the introduction of invasive species. Since 2008, Lake George Association lake stewards have removed 490 aquatic invasive species from boats.

The Park Commission vote drew strong praise from the S.A.V.E. (Stop Aquatic inVasives from Entering) Lake George Partnership. “With this historic vote, the Commission has upheld its protection mandate in the face of the gathering invasives threat,” S.A.V.E.’s chairman and Lake George Mayor Bob Blais, said in a statement to the press.

S.A.V.E. represents public and private leaders—including municipal officials, conservation groups, scientists, and businesses—around Lake George who have committed to paying half the implementation costs of the prevention program over the next two years.

Photo provided by the Lake George Association.