This past Thursday, dismayed at all the algae floating in the swimming area, I tried to find out if anything was being done about the situation which is worse -- much worse -- than in any previous summer over the past 10 years. Until last year, I was an avid swimmer and big supporter of Oakdale Lake as a place to swim rather than driving for miles to find a secluded swimming hole in the far reaches of Columbia County or across the river. Then I smelled that sulfurous rotten egg odor on a swim on a hot summer day and things have never been the same since for me. At least there wasn't a persistent algae problem last year like there has been this year.
The only person who could engage me at the park about the algae issue was a lifeguard on the steps of the bathhouse. He told me that as far as he knew, the algae in the swim area was being cleared off of the surface once a week by "a local organization," and that the most recent clearing of the algae had happened "two days ago," but he wasn't even sure about that. He told me that he had never seen it being done this summer. He then informed me that Youth Department Director Liz York was away for two weeks, which I was already aware of. He did not tell me who I should speak to instead, nor did I ask.
The next morning, I stopped by the park to see that the algae situation had not gotten any better overnight, and perhaps worse. The water was still stagnant and the outlet pipe for the lake was clogged, with a huge backup of algae lined up at the pipe waiting to exit. I went to the office and asked to speak to Liz's replacement. I was told that Calvin Lewis, who was present, was in the director's seat in the meantime. It had been a while since I'd spoken with Calvin, and I've never been able to wrap my head around any of his logic or responses regarding any issues I bring to his attention. Things haven't improved. After I asked what, if anything, was being done about all the algae in the swimming area for the past few days, he started off by assuring me that there had been a recent water quality test and that the lake was "safe to swim in."
"That's not what I am here about, Calvin. I asked you about all the algae," I shot back.
After a few minutes of a confounding, useless, circular discussion about the accumulated algae issue which Calvin seemed completely uninformed of, misinformed about and unconcerned with, I asked him if he knew when the last time was that the algae had been scraped off of the surface of the swimming area. He said that he did not know when it had happened last.
"And you haven't once seen the algae being removed that I was told happens once a week and that Liz is apparently fully aware of?" I asked.
"Nobody included me on it," Calvin explained.
"Yeah, but you've been here all the time during camp for the past few weeks, haven't you?" I asked.
He agreed.
Dumbfounded, I asked, "Do you even know who does the clearing of the algae and when it is done?" I asked,
Then he tried to look proactive. It was quite a performance. Picking up the phone, then looking up at the ceiling as if thinking out loud and as if trying to convey that he knew what he was doing, he said, "Let me call the group that does the algae cleaning. What is that woman's name?"
"You don't even know for sure who does the algae clearing, or if they even do it, and you are going to try to talk to someone at the Friends of Oakdale about clearing the algae and unclogging the outlet pipe?" I asked him in disbelief.
Calvin then offered more nonsense, and as soon as I heard him utter the words "community collaboration" I shook my head in disgust, turned around and left the office. He was absolutely no help and a complete waste of my time -- as usual. He is in charge of the Youth Department and summer camp, as well as maintaining the lake and the park, while Liz is out of the country for two weeks. If Liz had any inkling of anyone clearing algae off of the swimming area, she didn't inform her second in command about it before she left town. This sounds about par for the course to me for typical communication at Hudson City Hall.
All I want to do, like many others this summer, is to take a pleasant swim in the city's only swimming hole without being covered in, or choking on, algae -- something that was possible until this year. Most municipalities would kill for, and be sure to take proper care of, a resource like Oakdale Lake, maybe even checking on the outlet pipe every morning to be sure the fucking thing isn't clogged so that it isn't forcing algae to remain on the surface of the lake and making swimmers think twice about jumping in or even heading to THE CITY'S LARGEST PUBLIC PARK for a decent, hassle-and- algae-free swim. And they certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to allow a department other than a Parks Department or DPW to maintain the lake. Hudson failed to get that memo.
The narrow outlet pipe that has been clogged for at least the past 5 days and probably longer is the only way for algae to exit the lake. I guarantee that no one from the Youth Department or DPW has checked on that pipe in the past two weeks to make sure it is allowing water and algae to flow out of the lake, the sole reason the fucking pipe is there. During my regular walks in the park, I often clear debris away from the pipe that I can reach -- something the city should be doing at least twice a week. But no one is paying attention (there are those words again!).
The clog is now inside the pipe and not reachable by human hands -- it is likely a large log, which means that a concerted effort is necessary unless a heavy rain flushes whatever is in there out the other end of the pipe located on the other side of Glenwood Boulevard. Who do you suppose is going to make that happen? Will it be the Youth Department people with Calvin Lewis supervising the effort? How about DPW with Robert Perry in his waders pulling the log from the pipe with a long peavey? Or will it be "what's-her-name-from-what-the-hell-is-the-name-of-that-organization-that-was-maybe-helping-us-out-that-Liz-knows-all-about-but-she's-not-here-and-I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-I-am-doing-nor-do-I-give-a-crap-about-algae-on-the-surface-of-Oakdale-Lake"? Yeah, not to worry, one of these people will get to the problem soon enough, maybe before Liz York returns to the country or before summer is done while residents still want to swim at Oakdale on a hot day and have no need to worry about choking on algae and vomiting and/or winding up dead at the bottom of the lake.
Algae that remains on the surface of a stagnant Oakdale Lake makes the lake less swimmable, less attractive and more dead, if that's possible. Given enough time on the surface, the algae eventually dies, then sinks to the bottom where it consumes oxygen as it decays, further damaging the lake and making it less hospitable to aquatic animals of all kinds and sizes. Allowing algae to remain on the surface is a great way to create a hypoxic lake (lacking oxygen) -- which Oakdale is already classified as -- and is one of the reason the city invested in aerators that bring oxygen to the oxygen starved lake. It's a beautiful dance, isn't it? They continue to create the problem and solve it at the same time, thanks to, for some reason, the Hudson Youth Center and the Friends of Oakdale Lake, with people who really don't give a shit about the lake and may not even be comfortable in or around it. I've never seen Calvin Lewis or Liz York swimming at Oakdale, have you?
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| The logical conclusion: No one -- not one fucking person -- working for the City Of Hudson cares whether Oakdale's sole outlet pipe is clogged or not. |
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| It's not just that Calvin Lewis was unaware that the outlet had been clogged for days or weeks, he doesn't give a crap if it is and he wouldn't know what to do about it anyway. Hell, he might be afraid of water and algae. |
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| No chance to leave the lake, ready to create a deader lake no one wants to be near, swim in, gaze upon or think about. |
The only swimming area in all of Hudson, owned and operated by the City of Hudson, is full of algae and the guy in charge doesn't know the name of the "woman" or the name of the "organization" she works for who may or may not be clearing the swimming area of algae that seems to be growing out of control while summer camp is in session during one of our hottest summers in recent memory. It was apparent that Calvin could not have cared less if algae completely covered the entire swimming area. If he truly cared about the algae mess, why hadn't he already been on the phone with someone days before I showed up? You know, perhaps trying to speak with the "woman" whose name he couldn't remember who works for the organization whose name he also couldn't remember who may or may not be doing any clearing of algae in the lake that plenty of Hudson residents and summer camper kids like to spend time swimming and playing in?
What is the term for something that is a step or two beyond a shitshow? Would it be an embarrassing fucking disaster? Or an unacceptable Oakdale Lake Youth Department embarrassment? As long as our Youth Department is in charge of Oakdale Lake, absolutely nothing will change and the lake will be an uninviting, ugly, dying mess with a regularly clogged outlet pipe.
On Friday, a few minutes before my failed effort to get a coherent answer from the person in charge at Oakdale, I overheard one of his camp counselors say to another one in the parking lot, "we only have ten kids today."
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