Monday June 15, 2026 Honeoye Lake Water Quality

Terry Gronwall
22 minutes ago
2 min read

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May 2026 FLCC Muller Field Station Newsletter

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Surface Water Temperature: ~72.5 F

Water Clarity: ~8.3 Feet

Lake Level: 803.2 Feet above sea level

Lake level is just slightly below weir level.

Observations: Monday (6/16/25), Water clarity was ~8.3 feet same as the last week. The surface water temperature was ~72.5 F about a 0.7 F increase over the last week. It was an overcast, cold (54 F), and moderately windy day.

We found sparce amounts of Gloeotrichia (lots of small spikes) for the first time today. Gloeotrichia usually arrives in mid-June. See image on the left. We also found small amounts of Anabaena (Dolchospermum) (looks like a spring or chain of beans) and Microcystis (looks like a group of small round cells) too. Anabaena and Microcystis usually don’t show up until July. So, they are about a month early. See images below: You should be watchful for Gloeotrichia, Anabaena, Microcystis blooms lake wide over the next few weeks particularly when we have 80-90 F days with calm winds. More information on Gloeotrichia and Anabaena can be found at: https://www.honeoyelakewatershed.org/habs

Several research studies have found that most of the phosphorus that fuels Honeoye Lake’s blue-green algae blooms is released from the lake bottom sediments when the lake’s dissolved oxygen level goes below 0.5 mg/L in the deeper parts of the lake breaking the phosphors/iron bond in the bottom sediments releasing phosphorus into the water column. The dissolved oxygen (DO) level near the lake bottom at ~9 m (~30 feet) was 0.73 mg/L today. This means that phosphorus should not be released from the bottom sediments into the deepest part of the lake water at this time. Lake was stratified (i.e. had a thermocline) at ~7 m (~23.1 feet) deep. If we do not have a lake mixing event soon, we expect that the dissolved oxygen near the bottom will go anoxic (DO = <0.5 mg/L) later in June releasing phosphorus from the bottom sediments potentially fueling a blue-green algae bloom.

As of today (6/15/26), there has not been any public Honeoye Lake HAB reports submitted to the DEC HABs alert map (NYHABS) yet this year.

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:

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/e5dec19912454731a308bbb7af605fb3/

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