Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues at 8.38 and we welcome in Dr. Adam Effler. He is the Executive Director of the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council. Adam, good morning. How are you, sir?
Adam Effler: Good morning, Paul. Doing well, thanks. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing great. Doing great. And appropriately enough, the first topic that we wanted to tackle, there may be a classic example of this today because it's a warm muggy day. There's forecasted pop-up showers and possibly some thundery downpours and that leads to the question of trying to manage stormwater and I know this has probably been a bigger challenge than usual because we've had such a wet May into the month of June.
Adam Effler: It certainly has been a challenge for us with regards to managing stormwater within the Owasco Lake Watershed. Paul, based on a rain gauge station in Auburn, we've had more rain this May than we've had during the month of May for the past 25 years and much of what our Watershed Inspection Division observes for sites of concern includes ongoing construction activities within the watershed. So in the context of stormwater management, it's important that landowners stabilize their construction sites. They put in stabilization measures in place before construction gets underway. That's really important for us and we're looking to reduce sediment erosion, suspension, and mobility of sediments to Owasco Lake. And so here are some considerations I'd like to provide for your listeners with regards to stormwater management in the context of construction activities. Those that are either underway with or looking to get underway with construction. One is that construction sites greater than one acre in size in New York State are required by the New York State DEC to have what's called a SWIP, and that stands for Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan. And that plan actually pertains to the New York State Stormwater Design Manual for which there have been some new protocols this year, so that's important to pay attention to. And then lastly, some of the municipalities throughout these watersheds regionally have ordinances or requirements for permitting concerning construction activities. So it's always important for residents to look into those before getting underway with construction.
Paul Szmal: So the stormwater, the SWIP, what does that involve from a physical standpoint, Adam?
Adam Effler: Right, so there are a variety of features, all of them really pertaining at some level to either site stabilization measures, right? So we may be familiar with silt socks or sediment socks on construction sites that we see perhaps when driving by construction sites. Those are often used to reduce mobility of sediments on construction sites. Sometimes there are also practices that involve stormwater capture. So for certain construction sites, there need to be an area, perhaps a retention basin or retention pond, that allows for the capture of water on site. And then also within those plans, typically there are requirements for concrete washout stations, right? So if there's a foundation being put in or a walkway being put in on a resident's property, typically the contractors that bring in that material need to wash out their equipment. So there need to be designated areas and controls for those sorts of features for construction.
Paul Szmal: And I think you answered the next question that I was going to ask, which is, is this something that is usually the responsibility of the contractor that you hire?
Adam Effler: That's a great question. So the responsibility actually lies on the homeowner, whoever owns the property. So it's important that the homeowner explains to their contractor their needs, and it's really up to the homeowner to identify the regulations that are in place and that they're conforming appropriately to those regulations.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Dr. Adam Effler from the Awasco Lake Watershed Management Council here on FLX Morning. Water quality protection through watershed stewardship land preserves. This sounds like a complicated phrase, but I know you're going to explain it to us in more simple terms.
Adam Effler: Absolutely, Paul. So the Awasco Lake Watershed Management Council has more recently taken on a land stewardship role within the watershed, whereby we own and steward land preserves. A couple of years ago, we acquired from the Nature Conservancy, the 161 acre Fillmore Nature Preserve, as we now call it, where there now exists a public access lot and educational kiosk. And this preserve has provided opportunities for both youth and adult education concerning the importance of conservation efforts and the risks of invasive species. More recently, during its March 18th meeting, our board resolved to agree to accept yet another property transfer from the Nature Conservancy. So they're sort of in the business of acquiring these properties under grants, and they typically look for local stewards. This latter property that's being transferred to the Management Council is a 72 acre parcel in Venice, and for the purposes of ownership and long term stewardship.
Paul Szmal: So the question that would come to mind is, so why is this important? Why is this invaluable in the context of watershed protection and protecting water quality for the lake?
Adam Effler: These land preserves, when protected from development, provide and protect what are called the ecosystem services. And those services include sediment stabilization and capture, biological treatment processes, right? So the flora and fauna on the preserve actually provide a certain level of biological treatment for pollutants, the reduction of peak flows. So many of these preserves that are targeted have dense forests and wetland areas that can help capture stormwater and reduce peak flows to receiving water bodies like Oasco Lake. They provide for habitat, they provide carbon sequestration in the context of the challenges that we're encountering with global climate change, really capturing carbon through forests and wetland areas is very important, and among other features. So there are a variety of ecosystem services that we're able to protect when stewarding and protecting these land preserves.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Adam Effler from the Oasco Lake Watershed Management Council here on FLX Morning. There's been some movement on some legislation in Albany that can be helpful to the cause, shall we say?
Adam Effler: Yes, there has been. So we have a couple of programs that are in the works with Senator May. Her office has, over the last couple of years, helped us champion the New York State Legislative Finger Lakes Lake Friendly Living Commemorative Resolution. I know that's a mouthful, but for some history there, about a handful of years ago, a number of, and it's actually grown to be almost the entirety of the watershed stewards across the Finger Lakes region. And that, of course, would represent almost 11 groups, being that there are 11 Finger Lakes. We've banded together with a common messaging campaign, or motto, if you will, and that's under this Lake Friendly Living banner, whereby we have pledges that are operational on our websites requesting that watershed residents commit to recommended conservation practices. And we host at least annual public activities where volunteers from the public are encouraged to come and engage with a variety of related projects.
So this year, Senator May, again, she's championing that resolution for us. I understand it was introduced among the New York State Senate. And so it's been helpful for us in recent years, as an opportunity to recognize the various efforts of all of the watershed stewards across the region. And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, with regards to an actionable bill, the Harmful Algal Blooms Monitoring and Prevention Act was reintroduced under the 2025 legislative session under new print. And on June 10, the Senate bill passed the New York State Senate, was delivered to the New York State Assembly, and was then referred to the Environmental Conservation Committee.
So what we're looking for under this Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Prevention Act is for more support and dollars from New York State towards both monitoring the blooms and identifying the mechanisms that drive the blooms so we can target more prevention. Just for some quick history here, in 2024, HABs were observed statewide. During the 2024 monitoring season, 218 water bodies statewide were listed with confirmed harmful algal blooms. And over 2100 HAB reports were submitted to the DEC. So this is clearly a growing problem. Many of the water bodies are drinking water supplies. And this is a challenge that the public, and certainly at the state level, we need to be taking very seriously. And hopefully we'll get movement on those in the final days of the legislative sessions in Albany.
Paul Szmal: There are some current clean water funding opportunities that we wanted to spotlight today as well, Adam.
Adam Effler: Absolutely, Paul. So there are a couple of opportunities that are now available and accessible to either organizations and or municipalities that should prove valuable towards water quality protection. One is the Department of Environmental Conservation's WEQIP program. That stands for Water Quality Improvement Program. And those grants are available. What's neat this year is that they now fund road salt reduction planning for municipalities. And so one of the most meaningful things to be done at the municipal level is to adopt road salt, what we call best management practices, in order to reduce the use of road salt while maintaining safe roads. And so these planning grants, what we understand is they're a pathway for implementation funding. So what the state wants to see is that they provide some money to support the plan. And then once you have a plan in place, when you write a subsequent proposal for implementation funding, the reviewers at the state level can sort of reflect on that your plan is in hand, and you're then thereby more eligible to be able to receive funding to move that plan forward. So that's sort of the way that that process works.
And then also, there is a New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation opportunity available now, whereby applications are being accepted through their Green Resiliency Grants program. And that's $60 million at the state level available for stormwater management, just what we were talking about earlier today, Paul, and resilient infrastructure projects in flood-prone communities, so those communities that frequently experience flooding that could use better controls to manage stormwater. So a couple of, I think, relevant and worthwhile opportunities there, Paul.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely, and as always, Adam, we appreciate the information. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Adam Effler: Oh, you're quite welcome. It's always my pleasure. Have a great day.
Paul Szmal: You too, as well. It's 8.50 on FLX Morning.
