Honorable Kathy Hochul
Governor of New York State
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
Dear Governor Hochul:
We, the undersigned, write respectfully to request that you strictly enforce all New York State water pollution regulatory requirements in order to eliminate Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and other pollution hazards in Cayuga Lake, Owasco Lake, Skaneateles Lake, Seneca Lake, Hemlock Lake, Canadice Lake, Honeoye Lake, Cannonsville Reservoir, Bog Brook Reservoir, Amawalk Reservoir, Basic Creek Reservoir and dozens of other waterbodies that are essential drinking water supply sources.
This public health threat warrants your immediate attention because HABs caused by excessive phosphorus and other nutrients have released neurotoxic mycrocystins into drinking water sources for more than 10 million New Yorkers, including residents of New York City, Ithaca, Auburn, Rochester, Skaneateles, Syracuse and many other communities. In recent years, microcystins in Auburn, Skaneateles and Syracuse drinking water came within one tenth of a part per billion of not being able to be consumed.
HABs Have Been Reported in 186 New York Waterbodies so far In 2023
See: Reported Harmful Algal Blooms in New York State (2023) and Reported Harmful Algal Blooms in New York State 2023 List as of 9/12/2023
Cayuga County DOH 9/8/2023 HABs Update, Owasco Lake HABs 9/6/23, Owasco Lake HAB pics 9-2023
New York's Long-Standing Failure to Adopt Comprehensive TMDL Cleanup Programs for Impaired Waters Listed in the National 303(d) Registry
New York faces a statewide HABs crisis because your Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC) has failed for decades to adopt Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) comprehensive watershed cleanup programs for rivers, lakes and bays included in the State 303(d) Registry of Impaired Waters. In order to restore these waters to their best "uses," TMDLs must impose pollution Waste Load Allocations for "point discharges" and Load Allocations for 'non-point' pollution sources, such as agricultural and stormwater runoff.
Approximately 224 waterbodies in New York are included in the 303(d) Registry of Impaired Waters and require TMDL comprehensive watershed clean up programs. More than half of those waters are impaired by excessive phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients that cause HABs. More than half of the 224 impaired waters were listed prior to 2004 and still do not have TMDLs. This stunning record of long-standing regulatory failure is deplorable, irresponsible and must be resolved without further delay to protect public health.
Even worse, the handful of inadequate TMDL's that have been proposed by DEC in recent years have all failed to restore water quality as required by law. This is because the proposed TMDLs are voluntary, lack comprehensive pollution Waste Load Allocations for "point" discharges, Load Allocations for 'non-point' sources, such as agricultural and stormwater runoff and do not include sustained funding or a strict schedule for implementation.
See: New York State 303(d) Impaired Waters Map and New York State 303(d) 2018 Registry of Impaired Waters List
Proposed Plan of HAB/TMDL Action
Your administration's lax enforcement of TMDL legal mandates imperils drinking water supply sources, regional economic hubs, irreplaceable natural resources and local property values. In order to resolve those problems, we request that all New York waterbodies with documented HABs be required to:
a) be immediately included in the State 303(d) Registry of Impaired Waters;
b) propose a TMDL within two years based on a watershed Phase I Environmental Site Assessment that identifies all sources of water quality impairment; and
c) implement a fully-funded TMDL within five years. All TMDLs must be updated and revised every five years until the impaired waterbody is delisted from the 303(d) Registry of Impaired Waters.
New York's Failure to Clean up HAB-Impaired Waterbodies is Exemplified by Cayuga Lake
The dramatic need to fix New York's disastrous TMDL program is exemplified by Cayuga Lake. For decades, the southern end of the lake in Ithaca was inundated with massive algae and aquatic weed infestations as well as turbidity that prohibited public bathing at a historic waterfront park. Cayuga Lake was included in the National 303(d) Registry of Impaired Waters and a TMDL was required as a "high priority" in 2002 to address "phosphorus and silt/sediment" impairments.
See: Cayuga Lake Algae and Weed Pics 7-20-2023, Cayuga Lake Algae and Weed Pics 8-1-2023
More than two decades later, no Cayuga Lake TMDL has ever been adopted and implemented to safeguard drinking water supplied to more than 30,000 local residents even though the historic Lake is DEC's #1 TMDL priority. HABs now plague the lake each and every summer. Public bathing remains banned at Ithaca's Stewart Park for more than 60 years.
Lake Source Cooling's Documented Contribution to Cayuga Lake's Water Quality Woes
DEC exacerbated Cayuga Lake's algae and weed hazards by improperly granting a discharge permit for Cornell's Lake Source Cooling (LSC) campus air conditioning system that dumps up to nearly 50 million gallons per day of cooling water containing phosphorus into the shallow southern area of the lake where the worst aquatic plant infestations occur.
DEC gained notoriety for this decision after LSC was brought to national attention in The New York Times because Section 122.4(i) of the U. S. Clean Water Act specifically prohibits issuing a discharge permit for any project that through its construction or operation will cause or contribute to water quality violations. DEC ignored enforcing this legal mandate.
See: Aid to Environment, Or Threat to Lake?; Cornell Pursues Pumping Plan, But Critics Fear Fouled Water
In response, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a landmark cleanup plan to safeguard Cayuga Lake from LSC's phosphorus discharge. The plan required LSC's effluent discharge to be moved out of the shallow waters of the southern lake and into deeper water if it was proved that the phosphorus discharge contributed to water quality impairments. In addition, phosphorus pollution sources would be required to be identified and abated in Cayuga Lake's watershed to "off-set" the LSC phosphorus release.
Cornell conducted a Before-After-Control-Impact Study that documented chlorophyll a, a measure of plant biological activity, increased by nearly 50% after LSC began operation. This statistically significant finding helps explain why algae and HABs greatly increased after LSC started up. This determination should have required the LSC discharge to be moved "off-the-shelf" so that phosphorus would be returned to the lake's cold, dark depths without causing HABs, but this critical permit requirement was never enforced.
After two decades of irresponsible delay, DEC finally proposed a draft TMDL for Cayuga Lake In April 2020. The proposal received scathing criticism because it is completely voluntary, lacks any sustained funding and utterly fails to provide any meaningful plan to adopt Waste Load Allocations to reduce "point" discharges and Load Allocations to reduce "non-point" phosphorus releases that cause HABs. The proposed TMDL also did not halt LSC's untreated phosphorus discharge. DEC never implemented its proposed TMDL.
Conclusion
All of New York's HAB control efforts are similarly ineffective because they are basically voluntary, lack sustained funding and utterly fail to pinpoint and control nutrient and pollution releases that impair water quality and cause HABs.
In 2018, the DEC and the State Department of Health under the Cuomo Administration that you served in proposed "action plans" to "combat" HABs in 12 waterbodies: "Priority actions identified in the plans range from wastewater treatment upgrades, sewer expansions, and septic system upgrades and replacements, to streambank erosion prevention, stormwater best management practices, agricultural nutrient reduction measures, and open space buffer preservation projects."
These lofty goals were never achieved on a comprehensive basis. As a result, after five years the State's $65 million voluntary, non-regulatory initiative is a bust. Virtually all of the waterbodies that had HABs in 2018 are still plagued by HABs in 2023.
That is why we respectfully request that you implement our proposed plan of strict regulatory enforcement action without delay. We also ask that you adopt Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for all cyanobacteria microcystins in New York drinking water and improve drinking water treatment systems to safeguard public health from HABs.
In late 2022, Auburn's raw drinking water was being chlorinated to break down microcystins released by HABs in Owasco Lake. This resulted in an MCL exceedance for highly toxic chlorination by-products called trihalomethanes. This problem must be resolved on a statewide basis through drinking water treatment that avoids chlorination hazards.
See: Public Notice of Auburn Water Supply MCL Violation Of Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) January 9, 2023
In conclusion, we trust that you will find our respectful request self-explanatory, but please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions. We would be pleased to meet with you if you wish.
Very best regards,
cc: Hon. Charles Schumer
Hon. Kirsten Gillibrand
Hon. Deborah J. Glick.
Hon. Pete Harckham
Hon. Members of the Ithaca Common Council
Hon. Members of the Town of Ithaca Board
Hon. Members of the Village of Cayuga Heights Board
Hon. Members of the Tompkins County Legislature
Hon. Marc Molinaro
Hon. Lea Webb
Hon. Anna R. Kelles
Hon. James V. McDonald M.D
Hon. Basil Seggos