Dear editor:

Q: When is a lake not a lake or a beach not a beach?

A: When they’re, in fact, a cesspool.

For the umpteenth time this year, the otherwise scenic Ryerson Park — one NOTL’s many renowned jewels — is host to the noxious smells and sludge of effluent from the nearby creek and the treatment plant to the west which the prevailing currents trap in its cove-like configuration.

Not only is this a frequent occurrence but it has become a longer and longer lasting one, of late.

And yet evidence of any remedial attempts are nowhere to be seen, leaving visitors and residents alike to breathe in the stench and observe the slow lapping of slime-thickened waves as they turn the beach into a dark, sickly green, elongated biohazard.

For a visitor-dependent destination to allow such a disgusting display to recur in full public view year over year without abatement, or even evident intervention, calls its priorities seriously into question.

Indeed, how can dreams of five-star hotel developments possibly be compatible with a de facto open sewer almost in line of sight?

It’s been going on for far too long and it appears only to be getting worse.

So, let’s end the ignoring, the downplaying, the buck-passing and the delays in order to put a long overdue end to this toxic embarrassment as soon as possible.

Bruce Dickson
Chautauqua