At Governor Cuomo’s direction, DOH and DEC were dispatched to work with the City of Syracuse to collect water samples in the vicinity of Clift Park Beach and Skaneateles Country Club where a harmful algal bloom had been observed during the past week.
Testing, performed by the Wadsworth Center – New York State’s Public Health Laboratory which became available late Wednesday night indicates that the bloom has subsided and toxins are below a level of concern.
The Department of Health has advised Onondaga County Health Department that swimming and other recreational use in these areas can resume.
Additional samples for both raw and finished water were also collected and tested at the intakes for public drinking water serving the Village and Town of Skaneateles, the Village, and Town of Elbridge, the Village of Jordan, parts of the Town of Dewitt and the City of Syracuse.
The finished water sample was non- detect indicating no impact to drinking water quality for customers.
The raw sample was right at the detection level. The testing is being repeated on samples from the next day.
In accordance with the city and county action plan, if the findings remain at the detect level for a second consecutive day, the city will continue with daily testing of raw water until samples consistently return to non-detect levels. That plan also includes increasing chlorine levels in the intakes, an effective means of mitigating microcystin which already began earlier this week.
At the governor’s direction, DOH and DEC will continue to closely monitor
