Toxics Targeting says Cayuga Lake had most HABs reports this year

That’s the conclusion of Toxics Targeting Inc., an environmental database from in Ithaca, which reviewed data from 192 waterbodies across the state that reported HABs this year.

Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, said at a Thursday press conference that the number of water bodies reporting HABS in the water was 173 in 2018.

“State and federal authorities have failed since 1998 to halt this historic lake’s massive algal, aquatic weed and turbidity pollution hazards, even though it is included on the National Registry of Impaired Waters and requires a total maximum daily load comprehensive watershed clean up plan as a high priority since 2004,” Hang said in a news release.

Cayuga Lake is the drinking water source for some 40,000 people in Seneca Falls, Ithaca, Aurora, Union Springs and Cayuga.