| Water Quality Update for Friday, August 2nd |
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| This week’s update is from Watershed Manager Kevin Olvany, Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council.
With the hot weather and very calm winds, conditions have been ripe for concentrations of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) to rise to the surface and reach bloom levels. Watershed Council and Association staff, along with the 70 plus volunteers have all been actively monitoring the lake either visually or with a variety of monitoring tools.
To sum up in one word what are we seeing out there: variability! It is important to remember that the lake surface is 10,500 acres and has 36 miles of shoreline. We have seen a great deal of variability in conditions across the lake and shoreline areas. There could be mid lake streaking of cyanobacteria and clear conditions at the shoreline, or the opposite might be occurring. The northern half of the lake is seeing more pronounced cyanobacteria levels than the southern half. We have also seen a great deal of variability in the same location within minutes and hours. A gentle gust of wind or calm conditions for a few minutes, a boat wave and other factors can change conditions substantially in one geographic area. Conditions can change substantially if you have a 1-2 mph wind vs a 5-6 mph wind. |
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Left: Shoreline surface streaking on July 30, 2024 at Ontario Beach Park.
Right: Mid-Lake streaks forming at 3:45 PM on August 1st.
| The good thing has been our overall lake clarity as measured by Secchi disk has been holding very good. Under good conditions (calm and sunny) we were getting high clarity readings (7+ meters)- which tells us that there is not a lot of cyanobacteria biomass in the water column. However, we have seen this change rapidly in previous years. Lake researchers from Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC) were out on the lake today doing their monthly lake sampling. They launch at the south end and sample multiple locations throughout the lake as they make their way north. They collected a lot of samples that we will be reviewing over the next couple of days. One of the things they identified was a 2-meter reduction in clarity from the southern mid-lake station (7.3 meters) to the northern mid-lake sampling station (5.2 meters). We were getting 7.5 meters of clarity earlier in the week in the northern half of the lake on a sunny calm day.
Use your visual indicators. If you see these conditions: discolored green water, streaking of algae on the surface, or “pea soup” like conditions- avoid swimming and otherwise recreating in these areas. Please use caution before entering the water or letting pets swim in the lake. Conditions can change quickly so it is best to educate yourself on what to look for. As recommended by the DEC, if you see these conditions, avoid the bloom. |
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ARTICLES OF INTEREST:
A recent article from Peter Mantius’ Waterfront Blog tells the story of HABs in the Finger Lakes, and a recent loss for clean water protections in the Finger Lakes Region: https://waterfrontonline.blog/2024/08/02/habs-widespread-across-finger-lakes-state-department-of-health-rejects-proposed-rules-to-protect-owasco-lake/
