Paul Szmal: It is 8.38 on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. Cloudy skies, temperature is now at 52, dropped a degree. Joined now by Adam Effler from the Awaska Lake Watershed Management Council for our monthly visit. Adam, good morning, how are you, sir?
Adam Effler: Good morning, Paul. I'm doing fine, thanks. How are you this morning?
Paul Szmal: I'm doing well, doing well. We wanted to get right into it with the collaboration on the watershed site cleanup.
Adam Effler: That's right. So recently the Watershed Management Council joined with the Awaska Watershed Lake Association to clean up a site near a stream that discharges into Awaska Lake and to remove containers full of oil that threatened the health of Awaska Lake. This is the first project that was funded through the Lake Association's recent Joe Wasilewski Memorial Challenge Program. And Joe was an ardent supporter of OWLA, that is the Lake Association, and efforts on behalf of protecting Awaska Lake. The funding initiative matches local business donations to fund projects on behalf of Awaska Lake water quality. And Cayuga County businesses, including Alnai Trucking, First National Bank of Groton, Gilborn Agency, Lepak & Docs, Awaska Marine and Pennell & Auto, as well as Prison City Brewing, they all donated funds to the program for this particular cleanup effort.
Paul Szmal: Nice. And so OWLA... Oh, go ahead.
Adam Effler: No, no, I was just remarking it's great to have the donations from those businesses to help out with the program like this.
Paul Szmal: It certainly is. It's very generous of them. We certainly appreciate their participation in the fundraising campaign. And of course, the Lake Association, OWLA, is a volunteer organization, and they're hoping to raise additional funds from local businesses for this particular program. Those funds will be matched dollar for dollar up to $10,000 each year for five years, potentially providing up to $100,000 for projects that benefit Awaska Lake. So for your listeners, for business owners who are interested in participating in that program, they can, of course, reach out to the Lake Association, that's at owla.org, to learn more.
Adam Effler: But for this particular cleanup effort, there were 18 55-gallon oil drums, 15 five-gallon and 119 two-gallon plastic containers. They had all been deteriorating on a property on Water Street in the town of Locke. It was within 60 feet of the Owasco Inlet, and the property had been abandoned for six years prior to the discovery of the containers by our Watershed Inspection Division staff just this last year. Some of the containers had melted due to fire, contaminating the ground. We involved the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which tested the container contents and adjacent soils. And believe it or not, they determined the oil to be non-hazardous. And we believe in the end that it was perhaps cooking oil that was being saved for biodiesel projects that were then abandoned. So the DEC had no further authority or responsibility to remove them. And of course, we wanted to clean this site up and make sure that these containers wouldn't continue to deteriorate.
We contacted all the board members in April of this year to see if they could help provide some financial assistance for the container removal and disposal. And they were excited to do all they could to contact involved parties and help us raise the funds necessary for the action. The work was completed by a group called Momentum Environmental out of Bath, New York on September 25th. So we're very excited to have moved this project forward to have taken action towards site remediation in this particular case.
Paul Szmal: And if there's a moral to the story here, it's that you don't want to leave oils in containers that can degrade over time outside because they will eventually seep into the ground and that could not only contaminate the groundwater, but if you're near something like the Owasco Inlet, you have the possibility of that material draining into the inlet and then into the water supply itself.
Adam Effler: That's correct. That could lead to the deterioration of the containers can lead to a direct discharge of the material into the lake, which of course is a protected water body. And we want to ensure that it remains protected in perpetuity. So this has been an important project for us to be involved with. I would also encourage your listeners, just from the general public, watershed residents in particular, if you have sites of concern, please reach out to our inspection division staff. We do all that we can to remediate these sites, collaborating with our partners, and I don't doubt that there will be instances in the future where we can have successful remediation projects.
Paul Szmal: I was going to say this sounds like for the first of its kind, shall we say it was a successful mission, but there'll probably be more of these that'll be happening in the future.
Adam Effler: That's correct. Without a doubt.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Dr. Adam Effler here this morning from the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council here on FLX Morning. Wanted to ask you about any updates to research water quality data.
Adam Effler: Right. So recently 30 samples were collected by volunteers from Owasco Lake tributaries for SUNY ESF. That's the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry's October 4th sampling event, whereby ESF students will be running total alkalinity, total suspended solids, algal compounds, calcium, some nutrients, including nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate, and a few samples will have microbial community characterization as well. So this was a neat project we collaborated with the college on that was designed for instantaneous sample collections throughout central New York. And so really trying to capture an instantaneous signature regionally. And also, of course, this provides ample opportunities for education and research at the college for up and coming environmental scientists. So we're happy to participate in that program.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. It sounds like a broad range of data here that's being collected to, as you say, kind of give you an overall picture of what the water quality is.
Adam Effler: That's correct. That's correct. And, you know, with a college consortium where, you know, we have ESF and Hobart Williams-Smith and some support through Cornell University, it's always advantageous to our efforts in guiding a data-driven approach to watershed management.
We also have an update with regards to some of the phosphorus data that's been collected. The Kew County Planning Department uploaded Owasco Lake Tributary monitoring data to the New York State database based on the New York State's recent water quality data solicitation. And so this is important because those data need to be vetted and the QAQC, quality control and assurance, is all required for those data to be considered useful and acknowledged as salient for future research. So on October 8th, the Planning Department submitted the total phosphorus data from 2023 and 2024. That was through the tributary sampling project we've operated for several years now working with the Lake Association. And phosphorus is the nutrient of concern and is a target for reduction within New York State clean water planning, including the Owasco Lake nine-element plan for phosphorus reduction. So tracking phosphorus levels within the watershed is an important undertaking.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and I hope people are understanding here by listening to the conversation that we're having just how involved it is to maintain and keep an eye on the water system and the Owasco Lake watershed here in particular involves a lot of testing, a lot of data gathering and then as you said there is that nine-point plan for phosphorus cleanup.
Adam Effler: That's correct, Paul. Yeah, there's a great deal that goes into a data-driven approach towards watershed and lake management actions. Really you've got the sample collections on the front end, the laboratory analyses, then you have data processing, data analysis, and then the recommendations that come out of those data analyses. So there's a great deal of effort and work that goes into the data-driven approach towards watershed management. Of course for us over the long term we want to identify trends and those trends help us decide the direction that we need to go to or towards with regards to protecting the watershed for the community.
So we have a committee that's working towards implementation of that nine-element clean water plan, a progress report that is nearing completion and we're looking forward to circulating our report with the community for transparency and to give everyone a sense of all of the work that's being done.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. And let's also get an update on the Venice Preserve while we're at it.
Adam Effler: Sure. Briefly, we're planning our boundary signage posting and stewardship training with our partner the Nature Conservancy on this project and that'll be at the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council's new Venice Nature Preserve. And we're looking at either November 12th or 13th. Of course the posting the property is a requirement of ours. So we'll provide some educational information as well and we always encourage the public to enjoy these natural areas for both educational purposes and just for the joy of being within nature. So I'll keep you updated on that project as we move forward.
Paul Szmal: Right. And if anybody is interested in finding out more information or even perhaps volunteering for the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council because I know volunteer help is important to you. How do the people go about doing that?
Adam Effler: I would say that the best opportunity to learn more about what we do and volunteer projects that the community can get involved with is to visit our website. That is olwmc.org. There's information to make contact with the Management Council staff and again to learn more about projects. So please by all means get involved and we look forward to everyone's participation.
Paul Szmal: As always Adam, appreciate the conversation. Thank you, sir.
Adam Effler: It's my pleasure, Paul. Thank you so much. Have a great day.
Paul Szmal: It is 8.50 on FLX Morning.
