Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 816 FLX Morning. We've had Bill Rogge on the program several times from Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association and SenecaLake.org. Welcome back. Thanks, Ted. Good to be here. Boy, this is not the HAB news we were hoping for. Numbers are at an all-time high this year. Tell us about it and are we getting any closer to figuring out the why?
Bill Roege: Yeah, you're right. I mean, this is the worst we've ever seen. In fact, I went back and this year we've had more HABs than we have in the last five years combined. But Seneca isn't the only one. All the other Finger Lakes are all but one have been seeing the same sort of thing. As far as why it's so complicated, it's hard to say. Obviously, there's something widespread if all the lakes are seeing the same thing. But we had very calm weather August and September. We had a very mild winter and we had an early warm-up in the spring. So those are potential things that led to this really widespread outbreak this year.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I had the feeling that that was part of it, that calm weather, that the water doesn't get stirred around. And then, of course, what we know contributes to it is things like the nutrients flowing in. So tell us about the SNPR program, Sediment, Nutrient, and Pollution Reduction.
Bill Roege: Yeah, this is a program that I think we're about the only lake association that does this. But about four years ago, we decided we want to be a part of the solution. We do a lot of other things, but we wanted to be able to show real positive action. So what we do is we have matching funds that we go around to the five or mainly four of the county soil and water conservation districts, who are the main ones that are doing sediment reduction, nutrient reduction projects. And these are things like, they're called waste gobs, but they're water basins that help slow down the water. And that's a key, is you want to slow down, particularly stormwater, so that you don't get all the sediments into the flowing down the ditches and creeks and into the lakes. So we, each spring, we generally target about five projects between the different counties. And we've been pretty good now. This is the third year that we've really been kind of a more mature program. So we picked out five projects, and we put up matching funds. And the soil and water conservation districts then have, they have proposals. They're working with various landowners and public property and entities. And then their season is during the summer to get these done. And we'll always have an estimate of how much sediment we're keeping out of the lake, how much phosphorus we're keeping out of the lake, et cetera.
Paul Szmal: What can property owners do if a group isn't working with them formally in terms of, I know things like planting plants as sort of a sediment break can help. What else can property owners do to be part of this?
Bill Roege: Yeah. So that's, you know, that's another big program for us is kind of like friendly living things that residential people, or there's certainly a lot of best practices that we and the other entities around the area try to push farmers to implement on their own. But, you know, reducing fertilizers, septic and sewers for municipalities, you know, trying to keep those up to speed. There's grants available for septic systems to help improve those around the lake. But planting, certainly you want to prevent erosion. So trees and brush help do that. And say gullies and small little creeks, occasional creeks that you may have on your property.
Paul Szmal: You just completed a project near Salt Point Road in Schuyler County. What was that project?
Bill Roege: Yeah, so I think it was last year or the year before, there was a huge flood down in the lower part of Salt Road, including through the industrial area there, US Salt. So Schuyler County, kind of as an emergency thing, figured out that they could put in a retainment basin up much further on the hill. And so they came to us to help with the matching funds on that. And so they were able to complete that pretty much in mid-summer. That was a pretty priority project. And it was done in time for the Debbie downpour. And it proved its worth already, you know, during that event. So we chalked that up as a real nice win for this year.
Paul Szmal: Now I know this fall, you've got a couple of more flood-related projects underway.
Bill Roege: Yeah, so we had, you know, normally we just do five. But two of the counties came back to us and said, hey, after, you know, the two rains, Beryl and Debbie, we've had some really significant erosion at a couple of locations that if we don't take care of them now, next year during snowmelt and others, they're going to have significant erosion and sediments flowing down into the lake. So we went back to our board and said, you know, let's, you know, we've got to do it. So we've got to find money for it somehow. But even if we do a little bit less next year, but one's in Ontario and I think another one's in Seneca, I believe. Maybe it's Schuyler again. But so we're, they're going to push on that and hopefully get that done this fall so that we'll avoid, you know, any problems if we get more of these kind of storms next year.
Paul Szmal: Bill Rogge is with us from Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association. SenecaLake.org is the website. You've just given your Friend of Seneca Award to the Schuyler County Soil and Water Conservation District. Remind us the role that these districts throughout the Finger Lakes play.
Bill Roege: Right. So as I said, that's true. We went through and Schuyler County, all the soil and water districts are very cooperative with us. But Schuyler has been very aggressive in getting projects, working with us and getting things done at the southern end of the lake. But what they do is they they're charged. They have equipment. They do contracting and they go out for grants to help fund various projects that they design in order to to do this basic thing, is keep the sediments and nutrients out of the lake and remain on farm fields or in yards or in creek beds.
Paul Szmal: A little bit of fundraising news. You just wrapped up a matching fundraising campaign. Tell us how that went and then set the stage for the end of the year fundraising appeal.
Bill Roege: Sure. Thanks. Yeah. So we had a very generous donor that offered up matching money specifically for this sediment nutrient reduction program. So in August, we started a campaign that lasted about a month and that was five thousand dollars that he put up to match. And so for that month, culminating in our annual meeting, which was mid-September, we actually raised an additional sixty one hundred, sixty five hundred dollars. I'm sorry. Wow. So that was that was really great. So this this is the second year that we've we've done this matching campaign this year. It was much, much more successful. So hopefully in future years we can we can keep bumping that up. I think people hopefully realize that there's so much to do that, you know, the more that we can get to help these projects accelerate these projects, you know, the one step quicker we'll get there in the long run.
Paul Szmal: And then how can some people support you at the year end fundraising appeal?
Bill Roege: Yeah. So we're we're we typically do a year end fundraising annual appeal. So we're preparing for that right now. People can expect to see, you know, hard mailings, e-mails and others with the announcement starting around the beginning of November. And it'll run through the end of the year and even into January for some people. But very important. People see, you know, the need is there. I try to focus that everybody here benefits from good water quality in Seneca Lake. And, you know, we're doing along with lots and lots of other partners. But we have a lot, lot of ways of helping ensure that the water quality is remains good, gets a little bit better, but focused on the future, focused on our children, grandchildren, you know, and that sort of thing, because this is a long haul, long haul deal.
Paul Szmal: Everyone listening can help. You can go to SenecaLake.org. Volunteers are always sought. SenecaLake.org slash volunteer. Get all the latest news. Sign up for the newsletter at SenecaLake.org slash Lake Watch. Also, Seneca Lake Pure Waters is on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube so you can keep up with everything.
Bill, thanks. We're sorry to hear about those HAB numbers, but maybe that's a temporary thing. We can hope. And keep up the great work.
Bill Roege: Yeah, thanks. Each year is different, so you never know.
