The Cayuga County Health Department recently issued a reminder to the public about how to identify harmful algal blooms on area lakes, and the importance of avoiding contact with them.
This guidance has unfortunately become so routine that we fear people may begin to become numb to it and simply accept fouled water as the new normal.
Local leaders have not had much success lately getting assistance from their counterparts in Albany in stemming the flow of nutrients into Owasco Lake — but that hasn't been for a lack of trying. Earlier this month, officials in Auburn were joined by the president of an Ithaca-based environmental database firm for a public presentation on the current state of the lake.
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The news was not good. Toxics Targeting President Walter Hang said that too much nitrogen and phosphorus are entering the lake via runoff from the land. As a result, the number of harmful algal blooms has increased from 72 in 2023 to 93 this year as of Sept. 6 — a number that has surely increased since then, and will continue to do so well into fall.
While state officials did come through with funding for better water filtration systems in Auburn and Owasco after toxins were detected in their water supplies back in 2016, local officials now say that the increasing toxicity of the blooms could overwhelm the ability of those systems to adequately do their job.
"We're in uncharted territory when it comes to toxicity,"Â Auburn City Councilor Terry Cuddy said.
Still, we worry that after almost 10 years of harmful algal blooms taking on an elevated sense of urgency in the Cayuga County area, the community may become complacent about the threat they present. We certainly hope that's not the case, however, and that the community doesn't lose sight of the very real need to take action — and to press state officials to make it happen.Â
The future of the lake, its drinking water and the communities that depend upon it will surely suffer if people begin to become resigned to harmful algal blooms and accept them as just another fact of life.
Reports of harmful algal blooms on Owasco Lake have increased by 29% this year — and the season is not over.Â