Local and state partners are working together to monitor harmful algal blooms on Owasco Lake, but testing of potential toxins in those blooms is limited.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation said Owasco Lake, along with Honeyoe, Seneca and Otisco lakes, have shoreline surveillance programs of blooms, studying where they're happening and why. Owasco Lake's is a research effort funded by a $600,000 grant from the state.
With 80 samples allocated for water quality testing by a lab at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and 44 samples used in 2016, the DEC rolled over the remaining 36 for this year. Some of the samples are also tested by the state Department of Health's Wadsworth Lab in Albany, though not all.
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