DEP Reviews Plan For

Lake Slalom Course

By Andrew Gorosko

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is considering a water skiing club’s request for a permit to allow it to use a section of Lake Lillinonah for a portable slalom water skiing course.

The DEP held an informational session on the proposal on May 31 at Newtown Municipal Center. Five people who live in the Alberts Hill Road/Valley Field Road North area attended the session to learn about the proposal.

Those streets contain the homes that would be nearest to the proposed course. The area where Alberts Hill Road passes nearest to Lake Lillinonah is roughly one mile away from the spot where the club wants to have the slalom course.

The residents’ concerns included the prospect of additional power boats in the area, which would increase the local background noise.

Scott Conant of 190 Hanover Road, who is the Short Line Ski Club’s vice president, told the residents that the water skiers who would use the slalom course would be towed by powerboats that have inboard engines, which are designed to run quietly. Water skiers are not interested in using noisy boats on such a course, he said.

About three years ago, the ski club sought DEP permission for a slalom course on Lake Lillinonah much closer to Alberts Hill Road, but area residents’ concerns about having a course there, including noise concerns, resulted in that proposal failing to get DEP approval.

R. Michael Payton, the DEP’s boating unit supervisor for navigation safety/boating access, said that DEP will consider residents’ concerns when reviewing the ski club’s current permit request. If the DEP should approve the slalom course, the agency might modify some of the club’s specific requests in its permit application, Mr Payton said.

Mr Conant said that if the club gains a permit, any residents in the area who experience problems due to the presence of slalom course should personally contact him to resolve such problems.

Mr Conant said he is a member of the executive committee of Friends of The Lake. The group is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the recreational conditions and environmental quality of Lake Lillinonah, which is an impoundment on the Housatonic River.

Mr Conant said he expects that about ten families might make use of a slalom course as members of the ski club. The club now has six families as members, and may add another four to five families to its roster, he said.

One resident suggested that the DEP allow the ski club to have a test period for a slalom course to learn about any practical problems that might arise from such a facility.

Another resident said that the proposed 8 am starting time for the course’s use seems to be early in the day for such activity.

The club wants to create to create a marked slalom course for water skiing along the Newtown shore of Lake Lillinonah. The course would be open from May 1 to October 31. Water skiing would be allowed on the course seven days a week, from 8 am until 30 minutes before sunset.

The proposed slalom run would be an 850-foot-long course adjacent to Upper Paugussett State Forest, upriver of Shepaug Dam. George C. Waldo State Park in Southbury lies across the lake from the proposed slalom course. The slalom course has been proposed for a section of the lake that is near unpopulated land.

The course that would run parallel to the shoreline would be positioned about 175 feet from shore. The course would be 76 feet wide.

The applicant has met the DEP’s requirements in terms of wildlife protection in connection with the proposed slalom course.

A DEP permit for the slalom course would be granted for an overall nine-year period, but permit renewals would be required after three years, and after six years. If DEP soon grants a permit for the slalom course, water skiers would be able to use the course this year.

Copies of the water skiing slalom course application may be obtained or viewed at the DEP Boating Division Office at DEP Marine Headquarters, 333 Ferry Road, Old Lyme, from 8:30 am to 3 pm on Mondays through Fridays.