WARREN COUNTY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Memorial Day weekend is a popular time for taking the boat out onto the water. When it comes to safety, Warren County officials want people to think not only of protecting other boaters, but also the lake itself.

If you take off from a boat launch at Schroon Lake between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M., you’re likely to encounter a lake steward, who inspects your vessel for invasive species such as watermilfoil and curly leaf pondweed.

If the steward spots any hitchhiking critters, they’ll pull them off. There are also stewarded wash stations available throughout the Adirondack Region that use a hot water pressure washer to decontaminate the surfaces.

Volunteer lake associations, along with the Department of Environmental Conservation and Warren County Planning and Development, want to double down on their fight against invasive species this summer. A new pilot project gives boaters a way to clean off their vessel in the early morning and evening hours without a steward on hand.

It’s called a CD3 cleaning system, which stands for: Clean, drain, dry and dispose. The mobile kiosk has a suite of free, self-service resources to do it. 

CD3 allows boaters to check-in and out of bodies of water, and can indicate when invasive species, like zebra mussels, are detected.

“Particularly in the off-hour times when there are not actual stewards there,” explained Warren County Planner Ethan Gaddy, “we’re going to rely on the cloud-based data from the tools.”

The project is funded by the Department of State under the Environmental Protection Fund.

“Not only is this protective of Schroon Lake, which already does have some milfoil, but for other water bodies throughout the Adirondack Park and elsewhere that might have a boat come out of Schroon Lake and be launched there,“ Gaddy said.

The county will use data and feedback from the pilot program to decide if it’s something that will be permanently implemented to fight unwanted organisms in the lake.