A point to ponder

[suttontroller94]

So feel free to state your opinion but something was brought to my attention today that really got me thinking.

So today at work I was discussing various things about the finger lakes with a co-worker who has a cottage on Conesus. He is not an angler but just enjoys the finger lakes region as much as we all do. The topic of the lake level do to this drought was brought up and he hit me with a statement that really left me speechless. He realizes that the runoff from farms and wineries has a negative effect on the lakes but he said that this year there was no algae bloom nor were there many weeds over there and he figured it has to have something to do with the low lake levels, but then he mentioned that this year with little to no rain we didnt have the runoff from the agriculture that we normally would have and we just couldnt figure out if this was positive or negative. Is this going to just make more runoff next year? Did we get a year without much runoff to maybe help out? Or did we get enough rain for the runoff to still happen? Please voice your opinions to maybe help answer this question.

[FishingTheFL]

Auburn drinking water is being affected by blue green algae. Not sure how their rain fall compares

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[fishmandan]

Thought about this myself! But how do you explain honeoye, little to no run off and the b g algae is probably the worst I've ever seen there. I've heard the same thing about nutrient overload from farmers and what not but I'm really starting to question that given this year had little run off. I would like to hear more input on this issue!

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[FishingTheFL]

Maybe because water levels are low, the concentration is higher, temp might be warmer. Cayuga doesn't seem to be down but Seneca seems like its lower.... Didn't get much boat time this year

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[lakebound88]

Seneca is crazy low.

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[Sk8man]

One of the things I've been thinking about is that we had a record number of days in the 90's this year temperature and the amount of penetrating sunlight available had to be at record levels as well and with low water levels I wonder what this might mean as weed growth is very dependent on available sunlight as well as higher water temps and algae as well I should think.

[alwysfishn]

Another thing is that when water levels are low there isn't as much if any runoff from a body of water. A lot of what is on the surface or just below isn't being drained off.  It is trapped and adding to the mix. Organic material is decomposing and feeding the bacteria. The water isn't being flushed. I see this in my pond especially this year as it is so low there is no runoff. The higher air and water temps along with additional sun light also feed the any plant life especially the algae. I tend to agree though that with little rain there is less agriculture and residential runoff which causes less chemicals and fertilizers being dumped into the lakes and ponds which may contribute to less plant growth in certain bodies of water.

[alex1young]

Auburn drinking water is being affected by blue green algae. Not sure how their rain fall compares

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Very true, crazy low water and worst algae bloom I've seen.

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