Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues at 8.40, we're now at 62 under clear skies, and we're joined by one of our regular guests, Dr. Adam Effler. He's the Executive Director of the Awasco Lake Watershed Management Council. Adam, good morning. How are you this morning, sir?
Dr. Adam Effler: Good morning, Paul. I'm doing fine, thanks. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing well. Doing well. I feel like I asked you this question the last time, but we've had some abnormally dry weather, and I wonder if that is having an effect on the watershed itself, and if so, what kind of an effect?
Dr. Adam Effler: Right. Of course, with the dry weather, we've perceived less rainfall, thereby lower flows to the lake through the tributaries and through the ditches that network water to the lake. And so the concept there with regards to impacts on lake water quality is that with reduced flows, we typically have reduced loads to the lake. And what loads are, are the product of flow or discharge. That is really sort of the volumetric velocity of water entering the lake, the product of that flow with the various contaminants or constituents of concern. So for us, that includes nutrients, that includes solids and sediment, among other potential contaminants. So with this dry weather, with reduced flows, we're having reduced loading of potential contaminants from the watershed to the lake.
Paul Szmal: So that sounds like, that means that things are a little bit perhaps better than they would normally be if there had been a lot of rainfall and there was a lot of excess runoff.
Dr. Adam Effler: Generally in the context of watershed science, that is indeed true. I've had questions more recently about the extent to which the dry summer and reduced flows, thereby loads, have led to the fewer harmful algal blooms that we've observed in Awasco Lake this year in particular. And one of the challenges with regards to harmful algal blooms specifically is that being a relatively new phenomenon, it's not entirely well understood. There are a variety of drivers, otherwise known as causes of the blooms. We know that nutrient loading specifically is an important driver, but we don't really understand the effect in time, meaning that we don't know that there's an immediate HABS reaction in response to a load, to a nutrient load to the lake. And in fact, there's some evidence that the nutrients required for productivity and growth of the cyanobacteria organism, the organism that makes up harmful algal blooms, that it may be sourcing nutrients from the bottom of these central New York lakes. So that's an interesting phenomenon.
The other piece too here, Paul, with regards to the HABS specifically, is we also know that they tend to occur during warm, quiescent, that is calm conditions, where water temperatures are high, the lake is calm, and particularly this time of year. And so that being the case this year, it's been hot and dry, we might actually expect that we would perceive more blooms this year, while at least for Awasco, we've perceived less.
Paul Szmal: That's interesting the way that it worked out, isn't it?
Dr. Adam Effler: It sure is. And so there's some inconsistency, though, among our sister finger lakes. For instance, Cayuga Lake has experienced widespread harmful algal blooms this year. And they initiated this year earlier in the season than what is typical. They had blooms as far back as July. And of course, this is the primary time of year that we experience blooms on Awasco. As far as the blooms that are reported, we've had upwards of 30 blooms that have occurred and have been documented through the NYHABS platform. It is also important, though, to consider those observations in the context of what's called sampler's bias. And that means the extent to which the blooms are reported is greatly impacted by the number of people who are out looking for them. So that actually can have a significant impact on the data that we use and that we refer to with regards to harmful algal blooms.
Paul Szmal: Well, I'm glad you brought up sampling because there are a couple of innovative lake and tributary sampling programs that are on the horizon.
Dr. Adam Effler: That's right. The first I'd like to mention this morning, it has to do with lake foam. So there have been growing concerns and community outreach efforts regarding lake foam that collects on and near the shoreline of these lakes. Have you ever seen foam out on the lakes, Paul?
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I have from time to time.
Dr. Adam Effler: Right. So we're working with a group called Global Aquatic Research. And their acronym is GAR for short. They plan to sample a Wasco Lake foam this year and perform specialized laboratory analyses for what are called emerging lake contaminants. And in this case, they're analyzing per and polyfloral alkyl substances. And the acronym there is PFOS. If you've heard of that before, this is an emerging contaminant. PFOS is used in a variety of products. It's preferred for its fire retardant capabilities, as well as for nonstick, whether it be used for weatherproofing or industrial supply or kitchenware nonstick purposes. But we're finding that this product is widespread in the environment. So GAR included a Wasco, Seneca, Cayuga, and Skinny Atlas Lakes within their Watershed Resources Institute grant submission. This was through New York State, for which they were awarded funding. And they will sample this fall with one sampling trip per lake to quantify those PFOS concentrations and a few water quality parameters specifically in the foam and the surface micro layer in the lake water itself. And so this is important because some of their early studies have found that this foam contains significant levels of PFOS.
Paul Szmal: And it's interesting the time of year that the foam seems to set up. It's around now towards the mid to the end of harmful algal bloom season. And folks are curious about what this foam is made up of and is it dangerous.
Dr. Adam Effler: Right. So that's... Go ahead.
Paul Szmal: No, I was going to say, and I know there is another sampling program that was on the horizon here too.
Dr. Adam Effler: Yes. So we're also working with the College of SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry out of Syracuse. They are running a water sampling event to gain a snapshot of water chemistry in the region. And this project will span the Finger Lakes to the Mohawk Valley to Lake Ontario, a very widespread sampling effort. And they're looking for volunteers to sample on Saturday, October 4th. What makes this project unique is the sort of innovative prospect of collecting hundreds of water quality samples all at the exact same time. And so now what are the dynamics of water chemistry across this area for the various tributaries and sampling locations that will be used for this project? That's the overarching question. And so a unique project. And the laboratory analyses associated with the sample collections will also create research opportunities for grad students at the college. So that'll be an interesting project also.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, yeah, definitely sounds interesting. And there's also a couple of New York State lake protection bills that you wanted to talk about.
Dr. Adam Effler: Yes. Okay. So the first has been around for a while. This is the Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Prevention Act. This was reintroduced under the 2025 legislative session under new print. And so if your listeners are interested, if you look up New York State Senate Bill S1833, again, enacting the Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Prevention Act. On June 10th, the Senate bill was passed by the State Senate and was delivered to the New York State Assembly and referred to the Environmental Conservation Committee. Now this bill is currently being held up by the Assembly. For some reason, it was considered a semi-partisan bill, but the way in which it's being held up makes it appear as if it is actually being seen as a partisan bill, which is surprising to me because really the bill is geared towards providing for New York State support for both monitoring and funding support for mitigation for harmful algal blooms, which is something that I would be hopeful that folks would be interested in supporting across the aisle. Currently, New York State's investments have only been direct on the issue with regards to that NY HABs portal that we've spoken about previously, where folks can make observations of HABs occurrences and document them online. And then also indirectly through New York State, through supporting grant funding programs towards watershed best management practices for agriculture, through enhancement of septic system replacement programs, and other grant initiatives, but that's more indirect. So we'll see where this one goes. My hope, of course, is that New York State takes a more committed stance towards addressing the harmful algal blooms that have become really an existential threat with regards to human health as they continue to become more prevalent on our drinking water supplies and water bodies.
There's a second bill called the Drinking Water Protection Act. This would enact drinking water protection related to the adoption and enforcement of watershed rules and regulations for the purpose of protecting water quality. And the purpose of the bill is to strengthen protections for public drinking water supplies by modernizing the framework for watershed rules and regulations. This is currently in the assembly under A9069. So what's interesting about this one, Paul, is under public health law, the New York State Department of Health agency is responsible for promulgating and updating watershed rules and regulations. It's a project that we've been underway with for a number of years for Awasco Lake and had recently gotten held up by the state based on the New York State Department of Health's decision to terminate the project and not to support the update of those rules and regulations. So this particular bill is an alternate approach by Senator May's office to lean in and say, okay, so let's provide some more specifications and details about the state agency's responsibility so that we can better hold them accountable to this particular law.
Paul Szmal: As always, Adam, I appreciate the information and I'm sure people can find out more by going to the Awasco Lake Watershed Management Council website, which is olwmc.org.
Dr. Adam Effler: Always a pleasure, Paul. Thank you for your time this morning.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely, sir. It is 852 on FLX Morning.
