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Terry Gronwall

Monday June 14th, 2021 Honeoye Lake Water Quality

Surface Water Temperature: 76.1 F

Water Clarity: 18.7 Feet

Lake Level: 803.1 Feet above sea level

Lake Level Relative to Weir: -0.4 Feet


Observations: Monday (6/14/21), The water clarity has increased by ~0.7 feet over the last week to 18.7 feet and the surface water temperature has increased ~5 degrees Fahrenheit to 76.1 Fahrenheit due to warmer weather. There was no visible blue-green algae in the water column this morning. However, with the rapidly increasing surface water temperature everyone should be very careful to watch for blue-green algae blooms.


The lake is stratified at ~16 feet. The dissolved oxygen level below 26 feet is now close to zero which is low enough to weaken the phosphorus iron bond releasing Phosphorus into the deep water. When a lake stratifies and forms a thermocline the decaying organic matter, dead algae and weed fragments, on the lake bottom consumes dissolved oxygen in the water below the thermocline. When the dissolved oxygen has been completely consumed the phosphorous iron bond in the bottom sediments becomes weak releasing legacy phosphorus into the water near the bottom sediments. Then when there is a lake mixing event this bottom water containing excessive amounts of phosphorus is mixed with the whole water column fueling a blue-green algae bloom.


We did observe today that a lot that a lot of the Curly Leaf Pond Weed we saw growing to the surface last Monday has died off naturally. See today's picture to the left.



See last Monday June 7th picture same bay to the left.






We also observed several areas with filamentous algae. This is mostly an aesthetic issue. See picture on left.


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:

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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- Click on this link for "2021 Honeoye Lake Aeration Engineering Planning Project"


- The NYSDEC has recently released a new report “Feasibility Assessment of Harmful Algal Bloom Management Options for Honeoye Lake and Conesus Lake” as a follow-up to their 2018 Honeoye and Conesus Lake HABs Action Plans. Click on the link SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH | Honeoye Lake (honeoyelakewatershed.org)below to see report:

This report evaluates various techniques for mitigating Harmful Algae Blooms in Honeoye Lake by preventing the release of legacy phosphorus from the lake bottom sediments.

- Click on this link for HLWTF Winter newsletter: e6fc30_ef8d01223f42408ba11b3a7a5f83bebe.pdf

- Click on this link for "2020 Water Quality: What, Why, What's Next"


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