Drinking water tests improving!

The Auburn citizen is reporting today that the latest results from Thursday, Oct. 6 samples of water from the town of Owasco and city of Auburn's treatment plant showed no detectable levels of blue-green algae toxins. This is very good news after several days of rising levels of toxins found in testing.

Read more at:
http://auburnpub.com/news/local/auburn-owasco-thursday-water-samples-detect-no-algal-toxins/article_287fd88e-45e4-5881-b94e-5f8074b3e49b.html

Blue-green algae found at Adams Point

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said test results on a water sample at Adams Point on Owasco Lake showed high toxin levels associated with blue-green algae, according to the Cayuga County Health Department on Friday.

Full story: http://auburnpub.com/news/local/health-department-blue-green-algae-found-at-adams-point-on/article_891ad1ca-cb9d-5219-9c8e-13e8fbd5902b.html#utm_source=auburnpub.com&utm_campaign=%2Femail-updates%2Fbreaking%2F&utm_medium=email&utm_content=A7ABE91B4AB87725FEC03F56B65C6C326743857B

Owasco Lake Water Quality Notification Program - 8/29/16

Owasco Lake- Week 8 (August 29th) Summary

Hello Everyone,

As we enter into September, the life cycle of cyanobacteria that cause Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) starts to peak and blooms can become more frequent.

On Saturday August 27th, we received a number of reports about a potential HAB developing. Blooms were seen on the East side of the lake at Burtis Point, Adams Point (Wide Waters Lane) and Seward Point (Firelane 24 East); and on the West side of the lake at Cascade (Firelane 1-4 West) and near Firelane 26 West. A sample was Collected at Adams Point and Laboratory results indicated that the bloom did contain high cyanobacteria levels (281ug/L, above the WHO/DEC Threshold of 25-30ug/L), and toxins results have not yet been completed. Luckily the wind picked up on Sunday August 28th and the blooms have dissipated. Additional information can be found at owascoinspection.org regarding current conditions of the lake and any supplemental information.

Reports from weekly surveillance have indicated no evidence of a bloom this week. As always, if you suspect a bloom, please feel free to call me at 315-237-2066 or Drew Snell at 315-427-5188.

Best,

 Tim Schneider
Watershed Inspector

Owasco Lake Watershed Inspection Program
7413 County House Road
Auburn, NY 13021
www.owascoinspection.org

Violations, & Technical Assistance:
ph(o):   315.252.4171  x-120
ph(c):   315.237.2066

Owasco Lake Water Quality Buoy

Photo by John Halfman - FLI

For the second year in a row Owasco Lake has had a water quality monitoring buoy recording important water quality data. If you are on the lake you can't miss the yellow platform located about half way down the lake between Burtis and Koenig points. The buoy that was placed and maintained by the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart William Smith College, provides seasonal monitoring of several key water quality parameters.

Owasco Lake has been facing more water quality impairments in recent years. The water quality buoy provides much-needed daily measurements critical to understanding the environmental processes within the lake. This information will be used to recommend best management practices and develop watershed management strategies focused on improving water quality in Owasco Lake.

Read the complete buoy story at:  https://flihappenings.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/exploration-and-education-water-quality-monitoring-goes-high-tech-on-owasco-lake/

Water Quality buoy to deploy on Owasco Lake

Thanks to the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith College, Owasco Lake will have a water quality monitoring buoy this year.The YSI Water Quality Monitoring System will monitor and collect critical water column profile data, including temperature, salinity, and total algae, as well as hourly meteorological data such as temperature, humidity and wind speed.

Data from the buoy will give HWS researchers and colleagues a better understanding of the factors that define the limnology and water quality of the lake. The buoy will be deployed in north central part of the lake near the location of a previous monitoring buoy in use around 2005. Learn more about the project at HWS Finger Lakes Institute web site.

link to Finger Lakes Institute buoy article:
http://www.hws.edu/dailyupdate/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=17620

2011 Owasco Lake Water Quality Report

2011 Owasco Lake Water Quality Report

Dr, John Halfman of the Fingerlakes Institute at Hobart-William Smith College presented his latest findings at the  OWLA meeting this past Wednesday. Dr. Halfman emphasized the need to enhance our efforts to improve and protect Owasco Lake's water quality.

See the presentation:
http://people.hws.edu/halfman/Data/Halfman%20OwascoLake12-7-11.pdf

2011 OWLA Water testing summary

A summary of the 2011 OWLA water testing data was released last week. The testing this year on Owasco Lake was conducted between June 28th and September 13th. The continued resources and financial support for this program from both the public and private sector is encouraging. The bad news is that water quality in certain areas continues to degrade.

Thanks to Dick Coalson for again helping to coordinate our water testing efforts and putting together an excellent summary of the 2011 data.

See the complete 2011 summary at:
http://flihappenings.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/the-owasco-watershed-lake-owl-2011-water-sampling-data-analysis-report/

Link to John Halfman's latest Owasco Lake Report

John Halfman from the Finger Lakes Institute (FLI) at Hobart & William Smith, presented an update on his recent Owasco Lake testing at this month's OWLA meeting. FLI has been a partner with OWLA in Owasco Lake water quality monitoring for the last 5 years. We have included a link to the Power Point presentation John used at the August 4th meeting below:

Link: http://people.hws.edu/halfman/Data/Halfman%20OwascoLake%208-4-10.pdf

Learn more about what is going on at the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart & William Smith College.
Link: http://fli.hws.edu/pdf/2010/publications/august2010.pdf

AUBURN TO HALT OWLA WATER TESTING PROGRAM

Letter to the Editor from OWLA President, Joe Wasileski:

AUBURN TO HALT OWLA WATER TESTING PROGRAM

     For the last 20 years OWLA (Owasco Watershed Lake Association) has been testing 26 sites around Owasco Lake for fecal coliforms and turbidity.  Twenty volunteers performed this important work.  This was extremely useful information to many people and agencies including the Cayuga County Health Department and Parks Department and the Finger Lakes Institute.  The actual lab work was performed by the city of Auburn. 

     In July, 2009, the Auburn City Manager sent OWLA a letter which was a termination notice.  Various meetings followed, and it was indeed true.  We were devastated and in a state of disbelief.  It was also noted, that the city manager wanted to re-negotiate the watershed inspector contract.  Auburn and Owasco who are the sole suppliers of drinking water for 50,000 people in this area have the Legal Responsibility for performing inspections of the Watershed of Owasco Lake. 

     Almost a year has passed, along with multiple letters and meetings, and the testing season is now here.  We have met with all four Auburn councilors and the mayor and they unanimously support our position that testing be continued and expanded along with the Watershed Inspector position.  They promised to take action.

     The budget will be decided within the next 10 days.  Please call or write your councilor and the mayor and urge them to reverse this decision and re-instate OWLA water testing and strengthen the Watershed Inspector position.  The monetary amount is indeed minor; as most of it is paid by a pass-through to water users. 

     A penny-wise is a pound foolish when Owasco Lake is concerned.  Our drinking water is indubitably our most precious resource. 

                                                                                                 Sincerely yours,

                                                                                                 Dr. Joseph Wasileski

                                                                                                 (President OWLA)  

The Moravia Central Schools - Stream Team!

There was a very nice article in the Auburn Citizen this week covering an innovative, hands-on environmental education program with children from the Moravia School District. The "Stream Team", left the classroom to work in the field with educators from the Moravia Middle School and Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES. The goal was to learn about science and conservation first hand. Another group of students will continue this program in the spring of 2010.

Our "hats are off" to seventh grade teacher Karen Camp and BOCES environmental educator Ann Moore for their efforts to get kids outside and involved in these innovative environmental education programs. These kind of programs are very important to exposing students to both the science and issues that impact our water quality.

Link to the January 29th, 2010, Auburn Citizen article: http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2010/01/29/lake_life/lakelife01.txt

2008 OWLA water testing results from Dick Coalson

Each summer for over 15 years,, OWLA has been conducting water sampling around the Owasco Watershed. The data is used by various agencies to monitor overall water quality in Owasco Lake, as well as to spot possible issues in our watershed.

This program would not be possible without our volunteers and the support of the City of Auburn to test the samples each week. I want to personally Thank Dick Coalson for providing his time and leadership to keep this program active in recent years. Dick has provided this summary and we hope to post the actual data to the OWLA web site in the near future. If you would like further information on this years data or the program contact us at owlanews@gmail.com.

Stay warm! (Spring is just around the corner................)
- Lakeman

2008 OWL WATER SAMPLING DATA ANALYSIS REPORT

INTRODUCTION

During 2008 water samples were collected from 28 sites by 20 volunteers around the lake from June 18th through August 27th. The sampling volunteers were assisted by James Soucy, an AmeriCorps volunteer, who picked up the samples around the lake each week as well as took the samples for the four City of Auburn sites. James transported the samples to the laboratory at the Auburn Sewage Treatment Plant and also did the actual testing of the samples for coliform and turbidity under Andy Roche’s supervision. The sampling volunteers also measured air and water temperatures and noted wind direction and relative strength. They recorded the sky condition, algae citings, and also reported any unusual observations during the week. All of the information was entered in a computer spreadsheet for later analysis. Rainfall data was provided by Anthony DeCaro from the Auburn Weather Monitoring Station at the Water Filter Plant on Swift Street. The daily data was converted into weekly totals and entered into the database after the sampling season was done.

SUMMARY

The overall conclusion reached from an analysis of the data is that the bacterial water quality of Owasco Lake remains good. The summer of 2008 was another wet year which may be the reason that the fecal Coliform numbers are lower generally than previous years. The weed growth also was not as vigorous this year with the exception of the curly-leafed pond weed that peaked in the late spring displaying areas near the shore that looked brown in color. The Eurasian milfoil was not as prevalent this year as in past years. Algae were noted in a number of areas this year with the blue-green and brown predominating. Generally, if algae were seen at a particular site in June, they were present for the rest of the samplings. Water temperatures seemed to track the rainfall data with a 1 week shift frequently displayed. Even with all the rain recorded this year, the water temperature reached 28 degrees Centigrade on July 16th. Three sites reported that temperature on July 16th. The high temperatures seem to be at odds with the amount of rainfall but it was suggested that the rains came in short, heavy bursts
generally followed by clear, sunny periods.

Thanks to OWLA's 2008 Water Testing Team!

Yes, another year of water testing has come and gone. This week our team of dedicated volunteers will wind down its annual summer water testing program. Each Wednesday morning they rise and collect their samples and place them in coolers for pickup by a test coordinator . Then the samples are off to the City of Auburn's Bradley Street Treatment Plant laboratory for analysis.

So if you see any of these folks, please take a minute and thank them personally for the time they volunteer to help protect Owasco Lake.

2008 OWLA Water Test Team:

Ray D'Agostino

Becky Munn

Joe Wasileski

Bill Metzler

Dick Coalson

Shirley West

Don Delahanty

Ray Messenger

Bill Church

Ann McKee

Sarah Osborne

Ken Keppel

Paul Musso

Mike Sawran

Sharon Nelson

Elaine Dec

Gary Polinsky

Jim Ferlenda

Wally Manrow

Also a huge Thanks to the City of Auburn and its professional staff who have helped us for over 15years to analyze the water samples for 3 months every summer. And we can not forget the continued efforts of Joe Wasileski and Dick Coalson to mangage our water testing program and summarize our data; year after year.

Stay tuned here for a summary of this summers water test results.

Tony (aka Lakeman)

Owasco Lake Buoy Weather Information Now Available

Owasco Lake Buoy Weather Information Now Available!


With the help of the Upstate Freshwater Institute (UFI) in Syracuse, NY, current weather conditions on Owasco Lake are available in “near real time” on the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology’s (IAGT) web site. The information can be accessed from their home page (http://www.iagt.org/) using the “Owasco Lake Buoy Data Feed” button on the right side of the page. If you prefer, the full URL for the page is http://www.iagt.org/owascolakebuoy/ . There are also links on the page to the water quality and weather trend data collected daily by UFI, and OWLA’s web site as well.


For any of you interested “techies” out there, the data is uploaded from the buoy via cell phone system to UFI, where it is processed and then sent on to IAGT’s servers via FTP and then posted on the web site. As a result, the weather information on the web page is updated every 20 minutes, but the actual time of the reading may be as much as 40 minutes old when viewed.
For more area weather information, IAGT also maintains a land based weather station with more detailed information for conditions in Auburn, NY: www.iagt.org/weather .
Questions? Contact David Carr, IAGT: 315-283-9421, dcarr@iagt.org.