Surface Water Temperature: ~75.7 F
Water Clarity: ~5.0 Feet
Lake Level: 802.8 Feet above sea level
Lake Level Relative to Weir: -0.7 Feet
Observations: Monday (8/22/22), The water clarity has decreased ~0.3 feet to ~5.0 feet and the surface water temperature decreased ~1.3 F to ~75.7 F over the last week. The lake surface water temperature continues to drop due to the colder weather we have been having. The water clarity decrease was most likely due to an increase in algae in the water column. The lake has completely mixed over the last week potentially fueling our current blue-green algae blooms.
The Southern Lake Basin had an increase of blue-green algae in the water column today, but we did not see any surface scum. See picture taken Sunday 8/21/22 in the Southern Lake basin on the left.
However, the Northern Lake Basin had severe blue-green algae blooms today and last week with surface scum at most locations (Picture on the left):
We are now in the peak period over the next 4-6 weeks for blue-green algae blooms.
Today we found blue-green algae species of Anabaena, Gloeotrichia, and Aphanizomenon (pictures to left and below):
The DEC recommends that you, your family, and pets avoid contact with water that contains blue-green algae like Aphanizomenon, Anabaena, and Gloeotrichia. Everyone should be very careful to watch for blue-green algae blooms for the next few weeks.
The lake has completely mixed over the last week. You can see this by the convergence of the temperature and dissolved oxygen graph lines for the various depths on the left. This mixing of the lake’s water column would have brought phosphorus and nitrogen, released from the lake bottom sediments when the lake was startified, up to the surface water potentially fueling our current blue-green algae bloom. Surface water temperature was ~75.7 F and bottom water temperature was ~74.8 F. 1-meter equals 3.3 feet.
Always use your own visual assessment before making contact with the lake water at this time of year as the blue-green algae situation can change daily if not hourly. Please regularly check the DEC HABs alert map for more detailed updates on Honeoye Lake HABs alerts:
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The Final Aeration System Engineering Planning Report prepared by Princeton Hydro; LLC is now available. Princeton Hydro included written answers to approximately 50 questions asked during our Webex information meeting and by e-mail after the meeting in an appendix in their final report. We will be providing and update on this potential project later this year.
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- Click on this link for the Winter 2022 HLWTF Newsletter:
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- Click on this link to see the new HLWTF Honeoye Lake Watershed Storm Water Took Kit if you are planning any storm water projects on your property:
- Click on this link for "Honeoye Lake: 2021 State of the Lake article":
Final Aeration Engineering Planning Project Report, Public Information Meeting Presentation, and WebEx recording posted on the HLWTF web site:
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Click on the blue outlined box that says "Log in / Sign up" in the upper right-hand corner of this page to sign-up to be notified when we update our weekly Honeoye Lake water quality blog.
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