New York Land Acquisitions Help Protect Clean Water

Public News Service

Andrea Sears, Public News Service - NY

December 15 2020

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The state of New York and a nonprofit conservation organization have joined forces to help protect watershed areas and drinking-water quality in the Finger Lakes.

Owasco Lake provides drinking water for more than 50,000 people. But the lake has been threatened by harmful algal blooms, or HABs, fueled by pollution reaching the lake. In 2018 The Nature Conservancy received a $1.1 million matching grant from the state's Water Quality Improvement Program to identify, protect and restore land in the Owasco Lake watershed.

Jim Howe is director of The Nature Conservancy for Central and Western New York. He said that investment is paying off.

"We've actually been successful at protecting now two parcels that are top ranked in terms of their ability to maintain clean water in Owasco Lake," Howe said.

One of those parcels consists of 203 acres of woodland, wetlands and seasonal streams that will be added to Filmore Glen State Park.

Howe pointed out besides providing drinking water for cities and towns including Rochester, Auburn and Syracuse, preserving clean water in Owasco Lake is vital to the economic health and quality of life in the Finger Lakes region.

"If we don't have Finger Lakes that we can swim in and fish in, then we're not going to have the tourism industry and the vital property industry around the lakes," he said.

The Nature Conservancy scientists are evaluating some 3,000 parcels of watershed land for attributes that help prevent pollution from reaching the lake.

A recent poll showed more than two-thirds of voters say the Finger Lakes are important to the area's quality of life, and half believe the water quality has declined over the last 10 years. Howe said the poll shows overwhelming support for conservation efforts.

"Ninety percent of the voters that we polled said that they support increased funding and resources for water quality and solutions around these issues," he said.

Since 2018, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's HABs Initiative has provided an estimated $187 million to reduce the frequency of harmful algal blooms statewide.

Disclosure: The Nature Conservancy in New York - Long Island contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Environment, Public Lands/Wilderness, Water. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.

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