While much has been accomplished, much more is needed.Â
While this statement may apply to certain aspects of our lives, let s focus on the efforts and challenges to improve the water quality of Owasco Lake â our area s source of drinking water and several recreational activities. To narrow the focus further, what is being done to reduce the sediments and nutrients flowing into our lake and all of our neighboring Finger Lakes? Why reduce these anyway? Well, we need to minimize the occurrence of the not-so-friendly, green and slimy harmful algal blooms, with their dangerous toxins, that occur periodically from about July through October. We should not enter the water when these HABs are present. No swimming by humans or their pets!
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Peter is the creator and editor of The Water Front Online, the region’s only news organization dedicated to environmental issues in the Finger Lakes and Upstate New York. Have a tip? Send it to peter@fingerlakes1.com.
On the morning of July 4, Cayuga Lake’s first suspected harmful algal bloom of the season was spotted on the shoreline near the Beacon Bay Marina at the lake’s northeastern tip. Tests showed that its water samples easily exceeded the state’s cutoff for a “high toxin” bloom.
Samples taken of this July 21 bloom north of the Village of Cayuga showed cyanobacteria levels greater than 25 times the state definition of “high toxin.”