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The state health department recently provided its first formal response following the December 2020 submission of a proposal that had taken three years to develop by a steering committee of local experts and stakeholders. The rules and regulations have not been updated since 1984, and water quality advocates have said they do not adequately protect the lake anymore from emerging threats such as harmful algal blooms.

In the answer, the health department neither approved nor denied the proposal, but instead outlined a year-long process to evaluate it and potentially make changes.

The department has formed a state inter-agency working group that has started a series of workshops with local officials involved in the proposal's formation. The state agencies that are part of the workshops include the state Department Agriculture and Markets, Department of State, Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Transportation.

Local representatives on the working group come from the Cayuga County Health Department, the Cayuga County Planning and Economic Development Department, Cayuga County Soil and Water Conservation District, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Auburn Department of Municipal Utilities and the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council.

The state health department has the final say on what rules and regulations changes get made.

Steve Lynch, the county's planning and economic development director, and Kathleen Cuddy, public health director, informed Cayuga County legislators of a tentative review process timeline the state has established in committee reports this month.

An estimated six to eight inter-agency working group meetings will take place through October. The state health department would then publish proposed changes in November, and those would be subject to a three- month public comment period. Responses to the public comments would be issued in March, with final amendments in May or June. 

That adoption timeline is considerably later than what local officials had hoped for. Last September, the Auburn City Council and Owasco Town Board adopted resolutions seeking an expedited review and asking Gov. Kathy Hochul to prioritize it so they could be in place for this summer.

The updated rules and regulations were approved by the Auburn council and the Owasco board at a special joint meeting in October 2020, following a process that started in 2017. The formal submission to the health department took place in December 2020.

Auburn City Council also adopted a resolution in July 2021 calling on the state Department of Health, then under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to adopt the watershed rules and regulations quickly.

Lynch, who led the local steering group's efforts to develop the proposed rules and regulations, said in an interview this week that he's just glad the state is now engaged in the review and that there's a process in place.

"There's nothing to be done now about the time it's taken to get this far," he said, also noting that the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to the delay in the state's response.

Lynch also said he understands the state's cautious approach going forward, given that it could set a precedent for how other watersheds around the state could see rules and regulations changed.

"This is the first major update to a large watershed's rules and regulations in quite some time," he said.

Lynch said there have been three inter-agency meetings so far, and they have been productive.

"I'm happy to be working with the state in trying to come to consensus," he said.