Eighteenmile Creek Watershed: The Location of Sources of Pollution

Eighteenmile Creek is one of the six Areas of Concern (AOC) in New York State (Makarewicz and Lewis 2000). The International Joint Commission (IJC) and the Great Lakes community are working on 42 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes basin where beneficial uses of a waterbody have been identified as impaired. AOCs include harbors, river mouths, and river segments where Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) have beendeveloped and are being implemented to restore and to protect beneficial uses.Fourteen use-impairment indicators have been applied to define water qualityparameters. Eighteenmile Creek has been polluted by past industrial and municipal discharges, by the disposal of waste, and by the use of pesticides. Fish consumption has been impaired by PCBs and dioxins found in the flesh of various game fish. The health of the benthos has also been impaired by PCBs and metals in creek sediments. At the mouth of Eighteenmile Creek on Lake Ontario, dredging restrictions have been placed on the disposal of dredged material from Olcott Harbor. Dredging is needed to maintain recreational boating and requires land-based confined disposal. Other use-impairment indicators in the Remedial Action Plan (RAP) that require further investigation to assess impairment are: the degradation of fish and wildlife populations, fish tumors, bird or animal deformities or reproductive problems, and the degradation of planktonpopulations (Makarewicz and Lewis 2000)

Stressed Stream Analysis of Deep Run and Gage Gully in the Canandaigua Lake Watershed

Deep Run and Gage Gully subwatersheds are located at Canandaigua Lake’s northeast corner. Both subwatersheds are relatively small in size but a three-year monitoring program has identified them as contributing disproportionately high loads of nutrients and suspended solids (soils) to Canandaigua Lake. Within the entire Canandaigua Lake watershed, Deep Run lost the most phosphorus and nitrate per unit area of watershed to Canandaigua Lake (January 1997 to January 2000), while Gage Gully ranked third. Also, the Deep Run and Gage Gully subwatersheds ranked 3rd and 5th for total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) loss and 2nd and 3rd for total suspended solids loss per unit area, respectively in the Canandaigua Lake watershed. Because these two subwatersheds were contributing more nutrients and suspended solids than most subwatersheds of Canandaigua Lake, they have the potential to adversely affect the lake. The policy of maintaining the current high water quality of Canandaigua Lake suggested that the sources of pollution in Gage Gully and Deep Run be identified. With this report, we provide evidence suggesting the location and the intensity of pollution sources in the Deep Run and Gage Gully watersheds

An Addendum to Segment Analysis of Sucker Brook: The Location of Sources of Pollution

This supplemental report is an addendum to the original study \u27Segment Analysis of Sucker Brook: The location of sources of pollution\u27 (Makarewicz et a/. 1999). In the original study, recommendations for further investigation of two segments of Sucker Brook were suggested as follows. 1. The segment above Site 7 (Figure 1) in the City of Canandaigua had high concentrations of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and total phosphorus (TP) during an event January 1999. The source(s) was not identified. 2. The segment between Sites3 and 4 (Figure 1) had high concentrations of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total phosphorus (TP) and total suspended solids (TSS). The source( s) was not identified. Three separate supplemental events, two for Site 7 and one for the segment between Sites 3 and 4 were sampled in 2000 to conclude the Sucker Brook Stressed Stream Analysis

Segment Analysis of Oneida Creek: The Location of Sources of Pollution

The water quality of Oneida Lake is directly influenced by land use practices in the lake\u27s watershed. As precipitation falls on the landscape, it washes or carries materials, such as soil, cow manure, nutrients, pesticides, etc., from the land surface into nearby streams and eventually into Oneida Lake influencing water quality (CNY RPDB 2000). Thus different land usage greatly influences water quality of streams and lakes. For example, land usage that includes agriculture and urban living has a greater potential to deliver nutrients and soil to a lake than a forested watershed. If efforts are made to protect a lake\u27s watershed, water quality, as well as fish spawning and nursery areas of sport fishes, is also protected and even enhanced over the long term. To understand the relative impact of the many tributaries draining the sub-watersheds that constitute the Oneida Lake watershed, the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board began a series of studies (Makarewicz and Lewis 2000a, 2003) to determine the relative loss of nutrients from major sub-watersheds of Oneida Lake and to determine the location of sources within the priority sub-watersheds. Based on the two previous studies that suggested that loss of soil from the Oneida Creek subwatershed was relatively high and the fact that fish propagation is considered impaired because of sediment loss frorn agriculture (NYSDEC Priority Waterbodies List), the CNYRPD Technical Cornmittee recommended that a segrnent analysis be performed to identify sources of soil and nutrient loss from the Oneida Creek sub-watershed

Trophic Status of Conesus Lake 2014: Long-term Trends in Lake Chemistry and the Plankton Community

Conesus Lake, considered a eutrophic lake in the late 1960s (Mills, 1975) and one of the smaller of the Finger Lakes of western New York, is used for recreation and fishing and is a source of municipal water for several local communities. The shoreline area is densely populated with residences, primarily year-round homes. The upstream area is a mixture of agricultural land and mixed deciduous hardwood forests encompassing an area of 16,714 ha. In 1999 about half of the entire land use within the Conesus Lake watershed was and continues to be in agriculture. Much of the agriculture (~70%) is concentrated in the western subwatersheds of the lake (SOCL, 2002). In general, the watershed is characterized by slight slopes at the northern outlet and southern inlet areas and steeper slopes along the flanks and southern portion of the lake. There are numerous tributaries and rivulets that enter the lake (Forest et al., 1978) and account for large amounts of erosion and sediment that enter the lake system. For example, in August 2005, Stantec Consulting Services (2005) indicated that most of the 12 stream reaches visited were in an unstable state due to the heavy sediment supplies of the past and the related geomorphic adjustment. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) listed Conesus Lake on its Priority Waterbody List (303d)(NYSDEC, 2013) due to elevated phosphorus levels and high oxygen demand. The DEC identified the lake as impaired for boating and bathing purposes, stressed relative to fishing and aesthetics, and threatened as a water supply. The Livingston County Planning Department reported the following problems as being critical to the degraded health of Conesus Lake: 1) weed growth and invasive species, 2) increased algae from phosphorus loading, 3) pathogens from animal waste, 4) pesticides from residential and agricultural sources, 5) increasing salts from deicing chemicals on impervious surfaces, and 6) erosion from various landuse practices and developments (SOCL, 2002). Since then, monitoring and management plans for land use have been recommended and/or updated (Makarewicz et al., 2008, 2012a,b; Makarewicz and Lewis 2009; CLWC, 2011) A major achievement 7 of long-term monitoring on Conesus Lake is the creation of a database that can be used as a tool to assess the trophic health of the lake over time. Measuring selected chemicals, such as phosphorus, and the transparency of water and determining the amount of algae (chlorophyll measured) in the water allow us to answer whether management practices have had any effect on the lake. The goal of this project was to update information on the water chemistry of Conesus Lake to determine if any progress has been made in improving water quality

The Loss of Nutrients and Materials from Watersheds Draining Into Lake Neatahwanta Oswego County, NY

Here we report on the status of Lake Neatahwanta and losses of materials and nutrients from the various watersheds draining into the lake. Since 1994, Oswego Soil and Water Conservation District has begun several projects, Best Management Practices, to remediate and reduce loss of nutrients in the watershed. These include installation of rock rip-rap below the gaging station and the confluence of the Summerville and Sheldon Creeks, the installation of rock rip-rap in the drainage path near the gaging station on Sheldon Creek and the installation of fencing preventing cows from entering Sheldon Creek upstream from the gaging station at the Jeff Richards Farm. All of these management practices serve to reduce nutrient and material loss from the watershed to Lake Neatahwanta. This report updates the current status of the Lake Neatahwanta watershed, especially the Sheldon Creek watershed

Final Data Report: Sodus Bay Limnology, Lake Chemistry, Phytoplankton and Zooplankton Abundance and Nutrient and Soil Losses from the Watershed, 2004

During the spring, summer and fall of 2004, limnological and sub-watershed data were collected from Sodus Bay. In general, monitoring and analysis were designed to meet the following objectives: document current lake, sediment and nutrient conditions; document stream loading to the lake; characterize the bay\u27s community of phytoplankton and zooplankton to provide a benchmark against which the effectiveness of future management actions can be measured. This program will assist in developing a watershed enhancement plan and provide data for a simulation to determine the need for and likely success of adding alum to decrease phosphorus loss from the anoxic hypolimnion

Nutrient Loading of Streams Entering Lake Neatahwanta Oswego County, NY: A Summary of the Lake Neatahwanta Tributary Monitoring

This study suggests that the highly eutrophic condition of Lake Neatahwanta is in large part due to the very high loadings of nutrients from the surrounding watershed. Specifically, Sheldon Creek was identified as a major contributor of phosphorus and total suspended solids to the lake. The amount of nutrients entering the lake from Sheldon Creek were in excess of those observed in creeks of New York receiving point source loadings from small sewage treatment plants. Improvement of the water quality of Lake Neatahwanta will depend upon the identification and remediation of the major sources of nutrients in the watershed and in the Sheldon Creek watershed in particular

Characterization of Six Watersheds of Wayne County, New York

Wayne County Soil and Water Conservation District has a long history of working to keep soil and nutrients on the land and out of the water. Much of this work has focused on Sodus Bay and Port Bay (Makarewicz and Lewis 1989, 1990; Makarewicz et al. 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994; White et al. 2002). However, little is known about the environmental status of other major creeks in Wayne County away from the coastal area of Lake Ontario. As a result, the Wayne County Water Quality Coordinating Committee (WQCC) recommended a study to evaluate nutrient and soil loss from six watersheds and their creeks [Canandaigua Outlet, Glenmark (Sodus) Creek, Crusoe Creek, Black Brook, Red Creek East, and Red Creek West] not previously assessed. The purpose of the monitoring program was to collect water quality data in order to quantify the concentration and loading of nutrients and suspended sediments transported from these creeks and to evaluate the environmental health of each creek. In addition, the data serve as a database to make informed water quality management decisions, including the development of a watershed management plan, and as a benchmark of discharge and nutrient data to measure the success of future remediation efforts and to begin a data set that would lead to a priority listing of water quality goals.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1001/thumbnail.jp