Town enlists Hudsonia to study Sepasco Lake

RHINEBECK, N.Y. » The town will pay $4,200 to Hudsonia to develop a report that will allow Sepasco Lake to be declared a critical environmental area.

The payment to Hudsonia, a non-profit environmental research institute based in the Red Hook hamlet of Annandale, was approved at a Town Board meeting Monday.

Corinna Borden, chairwoman of the Rhinebeck Conservation Advisory Board, said such a declaration would subject proposed projects near the lake to stricter environmental reviews.

“Sepasco is the largest body of water that Rhinebeck has,” she said.

Under the proposal, applications for projects that ordinarily would be considered an unlisted action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act would be upgraded to a Type 1 action.

“It would go immediately into the rubric of looking at any environmental impact of any work and balancing with the same hand as economics,” Borden said.

Sepasco Lake is about a half-mile long and 400 feet wide, and it runs parallel to state Route 308.

A preliminary report by Hudsonia stated the more detailed review would involve three people conducting field surveys that involve canoe trips to review plants and animals at the lake. Included would be laboratory identification of specimens, mapping of habitats, and analyses of ecological sensitivities within 500 meters around the lake.

“Sepasco Lake ... includes features of a circumneutral bog lake, has the potential to support rare plants and animals, and Blanding’s turtles have been confirmed close to the lake,” Hudsonia officials wrote.

Blanding’s turtles are listed as a threatened species by New York state.

Rhinebeck officials noted the town has included identifying critical environmental areas in its comprehensive plan, with an area along White Schoolhouse Road already given the designation.

Borden said Sepasco Lake is considered important because there is a residential subdivision at its southwestern end.

“In the comprehensive plan, they talk about that being an area of potentially doing more housing, so it’s just a good thing to have on the radar,” she said.