Beginning in 2019, in response to AsRA's Salt Use Reduction Initiative, we started to see active engagement and collaboration between the state, town, village, local businesses, and residents to achieve reductions in salt loading to protect Mirror Lake. Road salt remains the top threat to the lake but, despite steps toward salt reduction over the past three years, there have been only small improvements in the water quality of Mirror Lake. Our goal is to provide stakeholders with the data and science necessary to make informed and effective decisions about how best to protect Mirror Lake. Our ongoing work to study Mirror Lake and threats to its water quality continually yields new insights about the lake. This is the sixth annual report on the water quality of Mirror Lake issued by the Ausable River Association (AsRA) and Paul Smith's College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI). Mirror Lake Conditions 2021 Water Quality Report Executive Summary In the spring of 2016 we conducted stormwater outfall monitoring to help us better understand where pollutants such as road salt are originating from. In addition, we collect surface and deep-water samples to be processed by our partner, the Adirondack Watershed Institute. We collect vertical profiles of temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and pH year-round, including through the ice during the winter months. This work has been supported by North Elba LEAF, the Mirror Lake Watershed Association, Town of North Elba, Village of Lake Placid, IRONMAN Foundation, the New York State Department of State, and private donors. This program will help us better understand the threats facing Mirror Lake and gauge the success of programs to mitigate those threats. The reduced oxygen in the lake bottom may be a natural phenomenon that is being exacerbated by development, road salt runoff, and climate change.ĪsRA and the Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) have launched a year-round monitoring program on Mirror Lake.
Increasing concentrations of these ions threaten the ability of the lake to support healthy fish populations and other aquatic life. These pollutants enter the lake via the application of road salt to both local and state roads within the watershed.
Mirror Lake has higher levels of chloride and sodium than 97% of the other lakes surveyed as part of the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program. The primary challenges facing Mirror Lake are high levels of chloride and sodium and low oxygen in the deep waters. This proximity poses significant challenges to maintaining the lake's water quality. Of its 1.2 total square miles, 26% of the Mirror Lake watershed is developed, 19% is surface water, and 55% is forested. A significant portion of downtown Lake Placid sits within the Mirror Lake watershed and Main Street runs along the lake's western shore. Water drains into Echo Lake and then on to Mirror Lake which empties into the Chubb River, a major tributary of the West Branch of the Ausable. This small lake's headwaters are located on the slopes of Mt. The Village of Lake Placid owes much of its picturesque charm to its proximity not to Lake Placid but to Mirror Lake.
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