ALBANY
Officials order removal of floating camps
ALBANY (AP) — After ordering one man to remove his floating camp from an Adirondack lake last summer, state conservation officials ordered three others removed, dismantled three more and removed debris.
The Department of Environmental Conservation said the floating camps were potential pollution sources and hazardous to boaters on Cranberry Lake, 100 miles northeast of Syracuse. The agency said the camps also disturbed natural habitats and spoiled the wilderness experience for others.
The camps were next to the state’s Cranberry Lake Wild Forest and Five Ponds Wilderness Area. The state owns both the adjacent land and the lake bottom, a state administrative law judge noted in finding Walter French’s camp in violation last year.
DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis ordered French to remove the camp or face a civil penalty of $48,800.
State law prohibits erecting or maintaining buildings on state land without a DEC permit, or building or reconstructing docks or other structures in state waters without a permit.
