Thursday, November 30, 2006
The Death of Owasco Lake
This reporter has covered polluted Cayuga County waters in the past. It is amazing that he still does not get it. Notice the weasel from the Dept of Health dodging what is essentially her work. Underlying this article is a depth of corruption on the part of county and state employees.
Notice that Tobin never mentions the 29 CAFOs in Southern Cayuga County.
Overseer urged for Owasco watershed
High levels of phosphorus make the lake’s water quality abnormally bad.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
By Dave Tobin
Staff writer
The contrast between Owasco and Skaneateles lakes could not be more stark.
Of all the Finger Lakes, one has arguably the worst water quality, while the other has the best. One has no watershed inspection program. The other has “the Cadillac of watershed inspection programs,” a state health official said, with two inspectors, a supervisor and a 100-year track record.
It’s the watershed inspector, stupid.
The words weren’t spoken, but the point was driven home, at a special meeting of the Cayuga County Water Quality Management Agency Wednesday night at the county legislative chambers. About 45 people attended.
Hard science backed up what Owasco Lake observers have been saying for years: The lake’s water quality is bad and getting worse. Phosphorus levels are high, especially around stream inlets, especially at the lake’s southern end, said John Halfman, lead scientist for the Finger Lakes Institute in Geneva.
Halfman showed phosphorus levels from tests he took last summer. The levels were literally off the chart.
“If this building had an eighth floor, the phosphorus levels on this graph would reach to it,” he said. “We aren’t as bad as Onondaga Lake. But of the seven (Finger Lakes) I’ve looked at, it’s the worst.”
High concentrations of phosphorus are found in human and animal waste, fertilizers and some detergents. Lots of phosphorus in Owasco Lake promotes algae and aquatic weed growth. In summer the lake is weed-clogged and murky and smells funny.
Owasco Lake also has registered high levels of total coliform bacteria, E. coli bacteria, chlorophyll and nitrates, which has forced Emerson Park’s beach to close in recent years.
Paul Kaczmarczyk, a water supply scientist with the state Department of Health, said state rules and regulations are in place to protect lakes, but that communities need a person to monitor what happens in the watershed.
“No one’s keeping an eye on anything,” he said. “You really need someone to keep an eye on things.”
Rich Abbott, who oversees the city of Syracuse’s monitoring of the Skaneateles Lake watershed, said he has two inspectors in the field five days a week, monitoring a 54-square-mile watershed. That is a quarter the size of Owasco Lake’s 208-square-mile watershed.
Having watershed inspectors
helps get better, quicker responses from other state and federal agencies when their input is needed, he said. Skaneateles Watershed inspectors also review highway construction and ditching everywhere in the watershed.
Eileen O’Connor, Cayuga County environmental health director, said Cayuga County officials “don’t have a handle” on development in the Tompkins or Onondaga county portions of the Owasco Lake watershed.
Bruce Natale, chairman of the Water Quality Management Agency, proposed a watershed inspector’s position, supervised by the Cayuga County Soil and Water Conservation District, budgeted at $56,000 a year. He proposed funding it with a $4-a-year water bill surcharge.
“Who they hire will be the most critical component of (starting) this program,” Abbott said. “That person would be starting from scratch.”
Dave Tobin can be reached at or 253-7316.