Friday, March 07, 2008
Farms are part of the Cayuga Lake Stink
Article published Feb 28, 2008
Experts blame lake’s odor on farming, pols
By Krisy Gashler
Ithaca Journal Staff
ITHACA — Scientists at a public forum on phosphorus in Cayuga Lake said residents concerned about stinking algae should blame farmers and elected officials, not Lake Source Cooling.
Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell, said biofuels like ethanol are one of the greatest threats to water quality because they encourage farmers to grow more corn, which requires more fertilizer and herbicides, and causes more erosion, carrying phosphorus to the lake.
A proposed biofuel plant at the Seneca Army Depot could decrease water quality in Cayuga and Seneca lakes, he said.
All of the scientists, from Cornell, the Community Science Institute, the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Finger Lakes Institute, agreed that tributaries to Cayuga Lake contribute the most silt and phosphorus to Cayuga Lake.
The lake is on the EPA’s impaired water bodies list because of excessive phosphorus and silt.
Cornell’s Lake Source Cooling contributes approximately 10 percent of the phosphorus load to the lake, according to Cornell’s 2006 Lake Source Cooling monitoring report.
John Halfman, director of the Finger Lakes Institute, has been studying an increase in deep water phosphorus in Cayuga Lake. Similar trends have occurred in other Finger Lakes, he said.
He called the impact from Lake Source Cooling “miniscule.”
Rich DePaolo, an area resident, said the “lake has been studied to death.”
“We can talk about 20 micrograms per liter, but the bottom line is in the middle of the summer on the Southern shelf of Cayuga Lake you’ve got sailboats that can’t get out of the weeds, you’ve got things that smell,” he said. “When are we gonna stop studying the problem and start doing something about the problem?”
Halfman and Howarth said those interested in protecting the lake should encourage municipalities not to scrape the sides of ditches but rather let plants grow there, to capture sediment and phosphorus before it gets to streams and eventually the lake.
DePaolo and several other members of the public said they want the state Department of Environmental Conservation to enact stricter regulations on all sources of phosphorus contribution.
Roughly 50 people attended the forum Wednesday at the Tompkins County Public Library.
It was co-sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Community Science Institute.