Boat Battle Roils Water on New York’s Otsego Lake : Dispute: Issue arose when plans were announced for a boat launch at Glimmerglass State Park. Opponents would bar the lake to all boats except those powered by paddle, sail or battery.

Otsego Lake, the fabled Glimmerglass of James Fenimore Cooper’s “Leatherstocking Tales” and source of the Susquehanna River, has become a focal point in a growing debate over motorboats.

“We’re talking about putting health and the environment ahead of mechanized recreation,” said Michael Whaling, co-founder of the 2-year-old Motorless Otsego. He seeks to rid the lake of all boats except those powered by paddle, sail or battery.

“We’re not saying every lake should be de-motorized,” said Adrian Kuzminski, another co-founder. “But there should be some set aside for low-impact uses. This would be a good place to start because of the historic significance of Otsego Lake. It’s sort of the Walden Pond of New York.”

The issue arose four years ago when the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced plans to build a boat launch at Glimmerglass State Park, at the northern end of the 9-mile-long, finger-shaped lake.

Harold Ennis, of nearby Hartwick, got 988 signatures on a petition asking for the ramp. He was tired of waiting up to an hour to launch his 60-horsepower Boston Whaler at the crowded Cooperstown dock at the southern tip of the lake.

The state’s plan was opposed by environmental groups such as Otsego 2000 and the Otsego County Conservation Assn. Those groups, whose members include lakefront property owners with motorboats, want to restrict boats for fear of ecological harm, but not ban them outright.

Except for summertime algae blooms that turn its clear water cloudy green, Otsego Lake appears pristine. About half the hilly shoreline is undeveloped, with forested slopes rising steeply from the water. Perhaps a dozen boats, and often far fewer, can be seen sailing or motoring across the postcard scene at any given point.

One biologist says there are signs of trouble with the lake’s ecology. Another disagrees. Motorboat opponents say it’s time to act, before the lake is spoiled.

The debate is a bitter one.

“The good Lord put the water here for people to use,” said Bob Berry of Oneonta, who has been fishing here for 20 years.

“I think those people trying to limit access are a bunch of selfish individuals who just want to keep the lake to themselves.”

Jeryl Shauger, a member of Motorless Otsego, said someone poured oil on her lawn in the shape of a fish.

“Moon Motorless” bumper stickers, featuring a line of people dropping their pants at a lakefront, have been displayed around town.

The issue is also making waves in other places where water-skiers, jet-skiers, speedboaters and the owners of big fishing rigs are being challenged by those who call themselves low-impact users: swimmers, canoeists and lovers of still water and silence.

In Vermont, a group called Vermont Quiet Waters has petitioned the state to ban or restrict motorboats on dozens of small lakes.

“What we’re concerned with is noisy versus quiet users,” said Ray Gonda, chairman of Vermont’s Sierra Club chapter.

Members of Motorless Otsego deplore the noise of speedboats. But their greater concern is the purity of Cooperstown’s drinking water, and the aquatic habitat.

There’s no doubt motorboats affect the environment. Propellers stir up weeds and sediment. Wakes erode shorelines. As much as one-third of the gasoline and oil put into the most popular motors, two-stroke outboards, goes through unburned, spewed into water and air.

But there is disagreement over how significant the impact is.

This fall the federal Environmental Protection Agency will propose regulations under the Clean Air Act to cut motorboat emissions by 80% to 90%, says John German of the EPA’s office in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Andre Mele of Kingston, an electric boat designer and author of “Polluting for Pleasure,” published last year by W. W. Norton, estimates that the nation’s 12 million gas-powered pleasure boats spew 150 million to 420 million gallons of fuel into the environment each year.

“I recommend that people fight to get two-strokes banned, especially those over 20 horsepower,” Mele said.

“We dispute everything in Mele’s book,” said Gregory Proteau, a spokesman for the National Marine Manufacturers Assn. in Chicago. “The industry has been working to clean up (emissions) for three decades.”

Biologist Willard Harman has studied Otsego Lake for 20 years, as director of the state university at Oneonta’s research station here. He has found signs of trouble: blooms of algae, declining deep-water oxygen levels, the introduction of milfoil weeds and alewife minnows that compete with native species, and decreasing numbers of mollusks, microorganisms and fish.

But Kay Sanford, an aquatic biologist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, insists the water quality in Otsego Lake is good, the fishing is better than ever, and lake trout growth rates are at unprecedented good levels.

While Mele contends that hydrocarbons from motorboat fuel pollute the water, Sanford and German say there’s no scientific evidence of that.

Tests at Cooperstown’s water plant have found no hydrocarbons or pesticides in the incoming lake water, Harman said.

The most obvious ecological harm done by motorboats, Harman says, is the introduction of exotic (non-native) species like zebra mussels and the stirring up of sediments, which makes phosphorus available to feed the algae blooms.

Members of Motorless Otsego favor formation of an elected commission that could pass an ordinance against motorboats.

“We agree with the philosophy of Edward Abbey,” said Whaling, referring to the late author whose novels inspired the radical group Earth First! “It’s not enough to respect the natural world. You have to defend it.”