Surface Water Temperature: ~76.8 F
Water Clarity: ~6.6 Feet
Lake Level: 802.9 Feet above sea level
Lake Level Relative to Weir: -0.6 Feet
Observations: Monday (7/18/22), The water clarity has decreased ~3.3 feet to ~6.6 feet and the surface water temperature was unchanged at ~76.8 F over the last week. The decrease in water clarity was impacted because it was a windy rainy overcast day.
When we arrived at our mid-lake 9 m deep (30 Foot) monitoring location late this morning the first thing we noticed was that we were marking large fish near the lake bottom on our Lowrance sonar and down scan. This was an indication that the water near the bottom of the lake had enough dissolved oxygen to support the presence of fish. A clear indicator of a lake mixing event (turnover). The wind and ~0.5 inch of rain that occurred last night caused the lake to completely mix potentially mixing phosphorus released from the bottom sediments over the last four weeks, while the lake was stratified, into the whole water column.
There was visible algae in the water column at most of our HAB monitoring locations. It looks like green dots in the water column. We did not see any areas with surface algae scum probably due to the strong wind today.
We took the image of today’s Anabaenaalgae sample on the left using a high-powered microscope. For more information on Anabaena see the articles at HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS | Honeoye Lake (honeoyelakewatershed.org) or search the internet for information.
The DEC recommends that you, your family, and pets avoid contact with water that contains a blue-green algae bloom like Anabaena. Everyone should be very careful to watch for blue-green algae blooms for the next few weeks.
Today (Monday 7/18/22) the lake was completely mixed from the surface to the bottom. You can see this by the converging of the temperature and dissolved oxygen graph lines for the various depths on the left. The wind and ~0.5 inch of rain that occurred last night caused the lake to completely mix potentially mixing phosphorus released from the bottom sediments over the last four weeks, while the lake was stratified, into the whole water column. This may provide nutrients to fuel an increase in blue-green algae levels later this week. However, there are other factors that will affect blue-green algae bloom levels like sunny skies, calm winds, and warmer surface water. Surface water temperature was ~76.8 F and bottom water temperature was ~ 75.9 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:
****
The Town of Canadice and Ontario County Soil & Water Conservation District have completed a NYS DEC WQIP grant funded Flexamat road ditch stabilization project on Cratsley Hill Road that will reduce erosion runoff into Honeoye Lake. More information available at: https://www.honeoyelakewatershed.org/cratsley-hill-rd
****
The Town of Richmond has obtained an emergency DEC permit to dredge the shale and sediment deposits out of Mill Creek from just behind the Mill Creek Café to the 20A bridge and under the 20A bridge in the NYS DOT Road right away. Last week (Week of July 11th) they remove more shale and sediment in Mill Creek from the 20A bridge to several hundred yards south of the Mill Creek Café. This week they intend to install several large rock water vanes to slow the water flow and keep the water flow from eroding the stream banks. See attached pictures. This project should reduce flooding risk from Mill Creek in the Hamlet and lessen the negative impact Mill Creek is having on the Outlet Creek flow. Richmond is working on a long-range plan to address other stream flow issues in the Outlet Creek and Mill Creek. We will keep you posted.
****
- Click on this link for the Winter 2022 HLWTF Newsletter:
****
- 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":
Draft Aeration Planning Project Report, Public Information Meeting Presentation, and WebEx recording posted on the HLWTF web site:
****
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.
****
Comments