The children waded waist-deep in green-tinged water at the Deep Run Beach on Canandaigua Lake on July 23 before lifeguards waved them out and closed the swimming area.
Tests of water that day at Deep Run showed levels of chlorophyll A at more than six times the state’s threshold for a harmful algal bloom, or HAB.
The Gorham beach reopened July 27, but another bloom forced it to close again on July 30.
HABs, which are actually blooms of cyanobacteria, are health hazards that typically arrive later in the summer, peaking in September and early October. But this season blooms were reported across the Finger Lakes during the last week of July, especially on the warm, calm days of July 23 and July 29.
On July 23, two swimming areas on Owasco Lake were closed due to HABs — one day after the state Department of Health pulled the plug on the Auburn community’s arduous long-term effort to update 40-year-old rules to protect drinking water drawn from Owasco Lake.
In a one-paragraph letter, the Health Department informed Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannettino and Town of Owasco Supervisor Ed Wagner that their proposed rule amendments “are not necessary to (guarantee) potable water quality for the foreseeable future.”
At a press conference, the two town leaders angrily railed against the department for “sabotaging” seven years of work driven by Cayuga County’s planning and health departments.
“Despite the willing participation by (three state) agencies throughout this seven-year process, the Department of Health has arbitrarily and without explanation terminated this process,” Giannettino said.
“This process to update the rules and regulations happened because the state advised and encouraged us to do so,” he added. “Seven years later, we’re told it wasn’t necessary.”
The proposed watershed rules, hammered out in negotiations with farmers and other stakeholders, were designed to guard against agricultural nutrient pollution.
Detailed studies of Finger Lakes watersheds, including Owasco’s, have shown that land used for agriculture — both cultivated crops and hay/pasture — is the primary source of phosphorous that fuels cyanobacteria blooms in the lakes.
The proposed rules aimed to reduce runoff of nutrients contained in farm manure and fertilizers. They would also have given the watershed association authority to inspect and seek disciplinary action against farmers who break rules.
Jake Welch, president of the Finger Lakes Watershed Alliance, said the controversy over Owasco Lake has heightened awareness of the need to protect water quality across the region.
Most of the 11 lake and watershed members of the alliance face similar challenges, including managing potential tensions between the interests of lakeshore property owners and farmers.
In January, the City of Auburn and the Town of Owasco sued the state Department of Health and the state Department of Agriculture and Markets after the DOH said a farming law restricted its legal authority to put in place new watershed regulations aimed at protecting Owasco Lake from HABs.
The lawsuit challenges that legal determination and notes that the 45,000 residents who rely on the lake for safe drinking water have a constitutional right to clean water. The case is pending in the state Supreme Court in Albany.
The push to rewrite the 1984 regulations began after unsafe levels of toxins from cyanobacteria were detected in treated drinking water drawn from Owasco Lake in 2016.
“Massive HABs have repeatedly polluted Owasco Lake in each succeeding year up through 2023,” polluting drinking water and forcing the closure of swimming areas, the lawsuit says.
Although the City of Auburn and the Town of Owasco have spent millions of dollars upgrading their water treatment systems (for which the state has awarded significant grant money), local officials say they fear the toxicity will soon overwhelm the towns’ water treatment systems.
Meanwhile, HABs have been reported across the Finger Lakes in recent days. The state Department of Environmental Conservation’s map of reported HABs details these:
— Cayuga Lake. Several blooms from Harris Park to Frontenac Park between July 23 and July 28 as well as a July 27 bloom from the Wells College boathouse to Long Point State Park, according to the Community Science Institute in Ithaca.
— Seneca Lake. As many as a dozen blooms on July 29, mostly in the northeast quadrant of the lake. Two of the blooms reported on the west side were near the Keuka Outlet, where Greenidge Generation expels warmed water from its power plant under a waiver from state rules prohibiting artificially heated water. Warm water is considered a factor that contributes to HABs.
— Skaneateles Lake. The water body that supplies Syracuse with drinking water experienced its first bloom July 29, midway along its eastern shore.
— Keuka Lake. A bloom was reported July 31 on the eastern tip of Keuka Bluff.
— Honeoye Lake. Since mid-June, the Sandy Bottom Park swimming beach in the Town of Richmond has been closed more days than it has been open, thanks to HABs. The beach was closed June 19, reopened June 28, closed again June 30, reopened July 9, closed a third time July 12, reopened July 22, and closed a fourth time July 29.
During the week of July 14, when surface water reportedly reached 81F degrees, blooms were seen along most of the lake’s shoreline.
Studies have shown that most phosphorus fueling HABs in Honeoye is released from sediments at the bottom of the shallow lake, according to Terry Gronwall of the Honeoye Lake Watershed Task Force.
— Canandaigua Lake. Six HABs were reported on July 23, seven on July 29 and five more July 30.
The Kershaw Park swimming beach in the city of Canandaigua was closed July 29, as was the dog beach nearby. The beach had been closed July 16 — but not because of HABs. A storm ripped through the area, damaging trees, and the beach was closed for the cleanup.
The DOH and the state Department of Environmental Conservation warn people against any type of recreation in green-colored water, waters with streaks of green, or water that looks like pea soup or spilled paint. It is likely contaminated with cyanobacteria, many forms of which produce toxins.
The toxins can cause vomiting, diarrhea, skin rashes, eye irritation and respiratory symptoms. They can also harm the liver, nervous system and other organs, state agencies say.
But swimmers can’t rely on a single source to learn where it is safe to swim.
The DOH monitors state-run swimming areas, but not other facilities run by towns or counties, including the Deep Run Beach in Gorham, an Ontario County facility.
Even if swimmers call ahead to check whether a swimming spot is open, HABs can form on very short notice.
Also, HABs aren’t the only contaminants that can force beaches closures.
Two Cayuga Lake swimming areas — the Cayuga Lake State Park in Seneca County and the Robert H. Treman State Park in Tompkins County — were recently closed due to high levels of E.Coli bacteria.
While beaches at state parks are monitored for E.Coli, not all city and county beaches are.
The Canandaigua Lake Watershed Association occasionally spot checks beaches like Deep Run in Gorham for E.Coli to see if they exceed the safe limit of 235 colonies per 100ml of water.
Shortly after a heavy rain in June 2023, CLWA tested Deep Run’s water and found 3036 colonies of E.Coli per 100ml, roughly 12 times more contaminated that the DEC’s safe limit.
Peter is a three-time Pulitzer nominated reporter covering environmental issues through his first-of-its-kind digital publication The Water Front. He’s won an array of Associated Press, UPI, and Society of Professional Journalist awards. His reporting on environmental issues continues to be featured in prominent New York publications and is available on FingerLakes1.com through an exclusive content partnership. Have a question or lead? Send it to [email protected].