Plans are now in placeto try and prevent harmful algal blooms in Skaneateles, Owasco, Cayuga, and nine other lakes across New York.
They were named as priority water bodies as part of the Cuomo administration’s $65 million plan to identify contributing factors and find solutions to the blooms. Scott Kishbaugh is with the state DEC’s division of water.
"We expect that many of these projects will effectively serve as a laboratory for innovative strategies to try to address blooms on lakes across the state."
Kishbaugh was a panelist at one of four regional summits on algal blooms held at SUNY-ESF back in March. He says the primary reason behind most blooms is excessive phosphorus and nitrogen from various sources.
"For some lakes, it might be improving septic management. For some lakes, it might be addresing agricultural runoff problems. In some lakes, it's stormwater problems. In some, it might be waterfowl. In others, it might be a legacy historic source of phosphorus that's now residing in the sediments within the lake itself that are migrating into the water in the lake.”
In Skaneateles Lake, the action plan states the significant sources of phosphorus include agriculture, stormwater runoff, and failing septic systems. For the first time ever, the lake had four confirmed harmful algal blooms last September. That was cause for concern since the lake is the primary water source for the city of Syracuse. Kishbaugh says solutions are wide-ranging depending on the lake.
"We're working through the process to identify which ones are going to require permits and applications to support funds to conduct the project. Others have local partners already working to implementing the project. For each of these water bodies, there's a mix of things that are shovel ready now, and some of them are going to take some time to develop.”
Using Skaneateles Lake as our example, the plan calls for developing a watershed plan, reducing runoff from farms, and inspecting septic systems. Other projects include shoreline planting to intercept nutrients, and possibly extending the water intake pipe deeper into the lake.
More on the staete's action plans for the 12 lakes can be found here.
