A plan aimed at tackling water quality concerns along Cayuga Lake is moving into a critical public phase, with residents set to weigh in on a proposed sewer district that could reshape how wastewater is handled along miles of shoreline.
The Cayuga County Water and Sewer Authority will host two informational meetings in the coming weeks to outline the proposal and answer questions ahead of a June referendum that will determine whether the project moves forward.
The sessions are scheduled for May 5 and June 2 at 7 p.m. in the Southern Cayuga School cafeteria in Aurora. Each meeting will include a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session, along with opportunities for attendees to speak directly with project experts.
At the center of the proposal is the creation of a new sewer district along roughly nine miles of Cayuga Lake shoreline in the towns of Ledyard and Genoa. The plan calls for installing a low-pressure sewer system that would collect wastewater from lakeside homes and transport it to the Village of Aurora’s existing treatment plant.
Local officials say the effort is part of a broader push to address mounting concerns about water quality, particularly as harmful algal blooms have become more frequent in recent years. While the exact contribution of residential wastewater to those conditions has not been fully quantified, state and local leaders have increasingly focused on reducing all potential sources of pollution entering the lake.
The proposed system is designed to capture sewage close to the shoreline before it can seep into the lake, where it could contribute to nutrient loading. Supporters argue that routing wastewater to an established treatment facility would help protect Cayuga Lake as a source of drinking water and as a destination for recreation, including swimming, boating and fishing.
The project is also part of a wider strategy backed by New York state to fund research and infrastructure aimed at improving water quality across the Finger Lakes, where similar concerns have emerged in multiple watersheds.
Residents within the proposed district will ultimately decide the plan’s fate in a public referendum scheduled for June 23.
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