A committee that plays key roles in keeping Irondequoit Bay healthy and safe would continue its work for at least five more years under a tentative agreement between Monroe County and three towns along the bay.
The county, Penfield, Irondequoit and Webster formed the Irondequoit Bay Coordinating Committee in 1985 to help tackle the complex task of managing the bay. The state has jurisdiction over the bay but the towns own and operate adjacent land, and before the committee there was no single entity in charge of addressing issues such as land use and water quality.
"This body was created to fill that hole and allow for the municipalities to work together to identify problems that arise related to the bay, to identify problems that might be coming up, and to, ideally, find a way to solve those problems," said Pat Gooch, a senior associate planner in the county's planning and development department.
In recent years the committee and its technical staff have focused on safety efforts, such as installing speed limit signs for boaters and jet skiers and establishing a partnership between the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Coast Guard around waterway traffic, accident response, and protocols for large gatherings.
But it's also kept a focus on water quality. Its formation came after years of efforts by federal, state, and local governments to battle severe eutrophication in the bay. That's a process where excessive nutrient pollution fuels algae growth, leading to things like harmful blooms, dead zones, and fish kills.
"A healthy water body doesn't just happen," Gooch said. "It needs active management, which is what this body is ideally doing, both through day-to-day actions (and) long term thinking."
Conditions in the bay are better now, officials said, but water quality is still a priority for the committee. For example, technical staff review development applications and provide input to the government bodies or agencies in charge of permitting. It also works with the state to address aquatic invasive species and other environmental concerns.
"The entire bay is actually a freshwater wetland," said Steve Olufsen, senior planner in Monroe County's planning and development department. "So we work closely with New York state DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) they're at every meeting actually giving opinions and letting us know about projects and permitting issues that they see on the bay."
The Monroe County Legislature must approve the intermunicipal agreement that would renew the coordinating committee. Legislators likely will vote on the matter during their September meeting.
The agreement would last for five years but include the option to renew it for an additional five-year term.
