Watershed Supervisory Committee Moves Ahead with Plan To Combat Algal Blooms

By BILL BELLEN
COOPERSTOWN

For more than 30 years, the regulatory body of the Watershed Supervisory Committee has overseen the protection of the Otsego Lake watershed—a region that covers parts of the towns of Otsego, Middlefield, and Springfield. In the 1990s, this took the form of the committee organizing and implementing the septic system inspection program for lakeside properties, some of which, until then, had still been discharging sewage directly into the water supply. Though the group’s efforts have long been a success with regard to mitigating this pollution, a new challenge has arisen in the last few years that presents a much more complex conundrum.

The summer of 2022 marked the first major harmful algal bloom—or HAB—in Otsego Lake, resulting in the closure of the public beach at Glimmerglass State Park as well as the Village of Cooperstown-owned Three Mile Point and Fairy Spring parks. Though not to the scale that some New York State counties have seen, the negative effects of HABs on public health have been raising concerns.

Dr. Kiyoko Yokota, associate professor at SUNY Oneonta and scientific advisor to the WSC, shared information regarding the HABs found in Otsego Lake, and addressed public misconceptions regarding them:

“‘Harmful algal bloom’ is a generic name for different kinds of blooms of microscopic photosynthetic organisms, and the one that we are dealing with at Otsego Lake is actually cyanobacterial bloom,” Yokota explained. “It’s caused by prokaryotic cyanobacteria, not eukaryotic algae. Cyanobacteria are a type of bacteria that photosynthesize, but they had been called, erroneously, blue-green algae, so that’s part of the reason that cyanobacterial blooms are still called algal blooms.

“The kind we tend to find in Otsego Lake blooms belongs to the genus Microcystis, which can produce toxins called cyanotoxins, and the group of cyanotoxins often tested detected in lakes and ponds [are] called microcystins.”

According to Yokota, yanotoxins are the primary cause of worry when these blooms begin to occur. Microcystins are hepatotoxins, meaning that in high enough quantities, they can cause serious damage to the liver. The New York State Department of Health heavily regulates their presence within bodies of water, with 4 micrograms per liter or less being the benchmark for the reopening of HAB-affected public beaches.

The WSC has been working hard to combat these threats to public health head on through a variety of endeavors. Since 2023, the centerpiece of this has come in the form of the group’s Nine Element Plan with New York State.

“It’s a lake plan,” said Jim Howarth, Cooperstown representative in the WSC and president of the Otsego Lake Association.

“It’s a plan that looks to council people for best management practices, working with homeowners, with farmers, with the state Department of Transportation for things like road salt and herbicides. It’s a plan over time to preserve and hopefully improve the quality of the lake water…probably a four-year time plan, of which we’re two years into,” Howarth said.

Much of the work done so far has been research based. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Federation of Lake Associations jointly administer the Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment Program, which has been spearheaded for three years locally by Doug and Rhonda Willies. In conjunction with the OLA, these two have volunteered roughly eight times a year to do scientific sampling of Otsego Lake’s water to collect and analyze data in accordance with DEC protocol.

The CSLAP data also contributes to the ongoing effort of lake water quality modeling within the 9E Plan itself. Working with the Upstate Fresh Water Institute in Syracuse and the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station, the WSC has been building a comprehensive model of the nutrient and sediment dynamics in the Otsego Lake watershed and basin to build a better understanding of changes in lake ecology that led to HABs and to help make more accurate predictions regarding them in the future.

The WSC has also been working closely with the governments of the communities that call the Otsego Lake watershed their home.

“The municipal assessment is required by the 9E Plan,” Dr. Bertine McKenna, WSC chair and Cooperstown representative, wrote via e-mail. “Springfield did one early, but the other two towns [Otsego and Middlefield] and the village will do them as well. The purpose is to understand components of municipal workings that may affect the watershed.”

For those looking to get involved themselves, the OLA, Otsego County Conservation Association, SUNY Oneonta BFS, and WSC have recently joined together to launch an Adopt a Shoreline program for Otsego Lake. Modeled after the similar Adopt a Highway program, residents of Otsego County who live on or near the lake can “adopt” a designated segment of shoreline to monitor for pollution and warning signs of HABs. Officials involved in the execution of the 9E Plan hope this will encourage more engagement from the community in maintaining the health of the lake, as well as benefit locals by teaching them more about the ecology of their surroundings.

With lake and watershed modeling underway, community interest and engagement on the rise, and substantive data on the horizon, the WSC will be playing a key role in a statewide mission to determine the cause and mitigate the threats of HABs in Otsego County, and statewide.

Those interested in monitoring HABs through the Adopt a Shoreline program can volunteer to become a shoreline monitor at https://www.occainfo.org/volunteer, or can report the presence of HABs directly through the HABs Notification System at https://otsegocountyhabs.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=217389b6ee9299517e1cde4a1&id=396bde13e9.