Water Quality Update for October 7, 2022

Current Lake Conditions:

Harmful Algae Blooms:  6 Blooms reported last week

Average Secchi Disk Water Clarity: 5.51 meters

Lake Level: 687.64 feet above sea level (Desired level 687.89).  Main gates have been closed all summer and feeder canal is at minimum required flow.
Yesterday marked the end of the volunteer shoreline harmful algae bloom monitoring program. For the last 11 weeks, 64 volunteers have been supplying HAB reports from around the Canandaigua Lake shoreline, sharing their findings to be included in these Friday water quality updates. To date, 597 surveys have been completed – wow! This number, combined with the 213 secchi disk water clarity surveys, is a truly impressive number of touchpoints around the lake. We thank the CLWA Citizen Science Committee for coordinating these programs, led by CLWA Citizen Science Chairperson Sally Napolitano, and including Lynn Klotz, Joel Pasternack, Dee Crofton, Susan Carpenter, Nadia Harvieux and Ted Carman. We also thank our partners at the Finger Lakes Institute, the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council, SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry, and the NYS DEC for providing technical assistance and expertise.

At the close of the season, we will be compiling the 2022 data and drafting reports that document program results to share with our full membership. More to come soon.

One main takeaway: the HAB season was much lighter this year. There were fewer blooms reported than previous years; 36 blooms have been reported so far in 2022 as compared to 75 blooms in 2021.
Although the official HAB monitoring program has come to a close, there are still eyes on the lake between CLWA volunteers and paid watershed staff. There were 6 blooms reported last week – 2 of them as recent as yesterday (10/6). The potential for blooms is still there, so continue using your own visual assessment to look for signs of surface streaking of algae, scums, or green/discolored water. These areas should be avoided.

 

We hope you have found value in these weekly updates. We plan to send a survey in the coming weeks to see what additional types of information will be helpful to you, our members, as we plan for next season.

As always, thanks for your support and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to HABs@canandaigualakeassoc.org.