Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning here on Finger Lakes News Radio. It is 8.38 and I'm happy to be joined by Dr. Adam Effler from the Awasco Lake Watershed Management Council. I've got to say that slow to be able to get all the words in correctly. Adam, good morning. How are you today, sir?
Adam Effler: Good morning, Paul. I'm doing fine, thank you. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing well. Doing well. Let's start the conversation with something that normally we'd be talking about in the summertime, at least in context, and that's harmful algal blooms because there's been some recent EPA changes and requirements from the Department of Environmental Conservation, which sounds like a lot of alphabet soup. Can you kind of guide us through what's going on here?
Adam Effler: Sure, I'd be happy to. Of course, harmful algal blooms have become an emerging problem for lakes across the state. In 2024, HABs is what we refer to them as in short, were observed statewide with many reports generated within the Finger Lakes region. And climate change, nutrient pollution, and invasive species are considered important drivers of HABs development. So regional advocates, including advocates from Owasco Lake and the associated community, as well as watershed organizations and municipalities have called for stricter regulations and enforcement of nutrient pollution entering the Finger Lakes. And so with regards to, you had made mention of the regulatory notification that had come down the pike recently, the week of January 13th, so just last month, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, that is the EPA, notified the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that it is now required to designate Owasco Lake as an impaired water body due to HABs.
So this is an important information, a bit of information here, Paul, in that the DEC has a certain protocol with which it addresses those water bodies that are listed as impaired on their 303D list. And typically lakes that have impairment for nutrient-based perturbations, which of course harmful algal blooms could be considered one, are given a clean water plan exercise called a Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL. Now one of the challenges with the TMDL is it's designed to target point source pollution. So after the Clean Water Act, we'll say in the early days of the Clean Water Act, the 1970s especially, there was a great deal of environmental protection headway made based on the implementation of TMDLs across the country because they were very successful at targeting point sources of nutrient pollution. That includes wastewater treatment facilities, some factories, but with regards to nutrients, mostly wastewater treatment facilities.
One of the challenges we have here though, of course, is that the nutrient pollution that is becoming of greater concern is watershed-borne pollution or non-point source pollution for which the TMDL clean water plan does not address nutrient discharges very well. So it will be very interesting to see how the state handles this new requirement that's come down from the EPA based on the fact that it doesn't seem that the current framework that they have in place will necessarily adequately deal with the problem.
Paul Szmal: So it sounds like there needs to be a change at the state level based on designation from the federal level?
Adam Effler: That's right, yeah. So there are instances where there are requirements that come down the pike from the federal level and really some of these requirements, and in this case around HABs and lake perturbations associated with the blooms, the toxicity of the blooms, and the dangers to human health, that those notifications from the federal government really hold the state accountable.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Dr. Adam Effler from the Awasco Lake Watershed Management Council here on FLX Morning. What's the status of the Awasco inlet stream and that stabilization project that's been going on?
Adam Effler: Yeah, I appreciate you asking about that one. So that is a federal grant that the Management Council had received in 2023. It's a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Sustain Our Great Lakes funding mechanism that was developed in partnership with the Cayuga County Soil and Water Conservation District, so a close working partner of ours, as well as a firm out of Syracuse, New York called EA Engineering. The proposal really targeted stream bank stabilization along the Awasco inlet. The council was subsequently awarded nearly half a million dollars from the foundation, and we titled the project the Awasco Lake Watershed Critical Streams Restoration Project.
So one of the features of the proposal was that the Awasco inlet sub-watershed within the overall Awasco Lake Watershed, based on our recent Clean Water Plan, the nine element plan that was approved by New York State, and the model that was used for that plan, that sub-watershed was identified as a high priority sub-watershed for targeting what we would refer to as nutrient hotspots. So really for making progress with advancement of the various best management practices that were recommended in the plan, one of which includes the advancement of stream bank stabilization projects. So the project team is on track to implement this particular stabilization project in the summer of 2025, and that will be following construction permitting restrictions due to trout spawning during the spring months. So we're looking forward to that one.
Of course, one of the caveats here is it's been very difficult to research and to study the extent to which the various recommended BMPs in these various Clean Water Plans intended to address non-point source pollution, the extent to which they work. It's a very difficult experiment to set up in an applied setting, meaning in the actual environment, to study the efficacy of these practices because there are so many influencing factors, identifying sources. You've got different land characteristics, slopes, soil types, upstream, downstream dynamics. So that being the case, we still, we're going to do what we can to implement the recommendations of our Clean Water Plan.
Paul Szmal: And once the construction begins on this, Adam, how long is it going to take to see the project through to a conclusion?
Adam Effler: Well that's a good question, Paul. You know, I mean, these sorts of projects, they often take longer than we think they will. And I don't know, maybe that's common among projects in our lives, generally speaking. So we found that as we were making progress through the early stages of meeting our permitting and compliance guidelines, there are requirements at both the federal and state level for permits to get underway with construction with such projects that we were waylaid somewhat based on the permitting responses from the various state agencies that were involved. So that being the case, we've extended what we expected a project completion in the fall of 2025. So of course, next fall to the fall of 2026, I've requested for a grant extension and I'm hopeful that, you know, that we will be granted that extension.
Paul Szmal: All right. Now I wanted to ask you about the possible or ongoing land acquisition and stewardship projects that the Watershed Management Council has been undertaking.
Adam Effler: Absolutely. So we've become more interested and invested in land holdings in recent years. The idea being that when an organization such as ours acquires lands to steward, that we're able to do so preserving those lands in perpetuity. So I would say the number one attractive feature here is holding onto parcels and restricting them from development in perpetuity. So if you think about, you know, the various conservation efforts over the last half a century that have really built out opportunities for preserves and conservation across the country, how important that really has been to maintaining publicly accessible park lands and also to protecting the ecosystem services that those public lands offer, you know, that includes the forests and the wetlands that provide all kinds of services for carbon sequestration, for nutrient retention, for sediment stabilization. There are a wide variety of features, of course, that Mother Nature provides that we can harness for the benefit of protecting our resources, including water quality.
So the Fillmore Nature Preserve, that's a 161-acre property that is critical for protecting water quality in Awaska Lake, which of course provides drinking water to more than 70 percent of Cayuga County. And in a study by our partner, The Nature Conservancy, had ranked that property within the top 10 parcels in the Awaska Lake watershed with the greatest impact on protecting water quality. So this was a parcel that was transferred to the Awaska Lake Watershed Management Council. It's located near the birthplace of President Millard Fillmore and Fillmore Glen State Park. And so we closed on that transfer with The Nature Conservancy back in January of 2023, establishing that Fillmore Nature Preserve. And subsequently, the council blazed trails at the preserve and created a public access lot and educational kiosk there. So we are encouraging the public to make use of that land for hiking and nature study and to have the opportunity to learn about the history of that nature preserve and why we're so interested in preserving that land.
Paul Szmal: Ah, okay. That explains a lot. Much appreciated, Adam. Thank you so much for joining us here this morning. We look forward to another conversation down the road.
Adam Effler: Absolutely, Paul. It's my pleasure. I hope to talk with you again soon.
Paul Szmal: All right. That is Dr. Adam Effler from the Awaska Lake Watershed Management Council joining us here on FLX Morning. It is 849.
