CAZENOVIA — On Oct. 23, Thad Yorks, Ph.D., professor of biology and environmental biology at Cazenovia College, and Mat Webber, a retired watershed educator for the Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA) and Cornell Cooperative Extension, introduced community members to Cazenovia’s volunteer-based water quality monitoring program.

Co-sponsored by the Cazenovia Lake Association (CLA) and the Water Resources Task Force of the United Climate Action Network (UCAN), the program will provide “hands-on participation in water resource protection, education of the community with a focus on land use impacts, and an opportunity to train the next generation of environmental leaders.”

The monitoring results will be shared with regional planners, local government agencies, the CLA, and the agencies in charge of road maintenance, in an effort to raise awareness of water quality issues and help find solutions.

“Throughout the years, we have found many problems that the state has come in and rectified,” said Webber. “One example is at the Syracuse Airport, [where we do testing] with Liverpool High School kids. All of a sudden, they found elevated [chemistry readings] that had never been there before and all the macroinvertebrates in the stream had died. We reported it, and [the state] came out and determined that the airport was letting their airplane de-icing agent wash directly into the stream, which was illegal. [The airport] got fined millions of dollars and had to build a containment system. Now they are capturing and reusing the [de-icing agent]. It’s saving them money, and the stream has, over the years, improved in quality to the point where they are stocking it again with trout.”

During the hour-long volunteer training session at the Scouts BSA Troop 18’s Lewis Loyster Memorial Lodge (8 Riverside Drive), Yorks and Webber introduced adult community members and local scouts to two different sampling opportunities.

The first option involves volunteers conducting chloride testing on intermittent streams or drainage ditches on or near their properties during/after snowmelt or heavy rain events.

According to Webber, the hope is that this type of testing will provide information on if/how road salt is impacting local streams, ponds, lakes, and ground water.

“Chloride levels in elevated numbers negatively impact aquatic life and human health,” Webber said. “We have volunteer-collected water quality data that show alarming elevations of chlorides in our area streams over the last five to ten years. We know that many highway departments have stepped up their applications of salt on our roadways in that time. They have also used new types of salt applications, [such as applying brines ahead of anticipated storms], to keep our roadways clear.”

Webber explained that salt often moves into nearby streams and other bodies of water during snowmelt in the spring and after heavy rain events. He also stated that road salt is persistent and can be seen throughout the year on the shoulders of roads, and that heavy rain can transport the salt into streams even in the summer.

According to Webber, chloride testing will help address the following questions:

Is salt being applied too heavily to area roadways, beyond what is needed to secure safe road travel?

Is there a cumulative effect from the many years of salt applications?

Do winter salt applications impact water quality during other times of the year?

Could surface water pollution filter into groundwater, affecting homeowners’ drinking water?

Individuals interested in conducting this type of testing will be provided easy-to-use chloride test kits that produce results in just a few minutes. Volunteers will be asked to follow the procedures provided by the IWLA’s “Winter Salt Watch” program. The IWLA website provides a clear explanation of how the sampling is done, how to report the results, and why the testing is important.

The second monitoring option involves more detailed protocols that are primarily conducted on streams with continuous, year-round water flow.

“This program will test the water quality beyond chlorides, looking for other water quality issues that may be impacting our waterways,” explained Webber.

Examples of such issues include the removal of buffer zones along waterways causing erosion and elevated water temperatures; homeowner fertilizer application runoff; agricultural runoff (chemical and/or manure); septic system issues; road runoff; and runoff caused by building/development.

During the training session, Yorks and Webber taught volunteers to test for phosphates, nitrates, pH, total dissolved solids, temperature, and dissolved oxygen, using samples collected from Chittenango Creek.

In addition to demonstrating the methodology, the educators also discussed the significance of each test. For example, the pair explained that nutrients, like phosphorus and nitrogen, are a natural part of healthy lakes, rivers and streams. However, excessive nutrients can cause water quality issues that negatively impact water supplies, recreational uses, and aquatic life. Elevated levels of phosphorus and nitrogen — which are present in waters in the forms of phosphate and nitrate, respectively — can produce nuisance algal blooms and increase aquatic weed growth, which both reduce the water quality and recreational value of the body of water. Phosphorus and nitrogen can be introduced from agricultural animal waste and sediments washing into bodies of water; urban runoff from impervious surfaces, such as parking lots, lawns, rooftops and roads; inadequate onsite septic systems; municipal wastewater treatment plant discharges; and atmospheric deposition.

Volunteers are encouraged to conduct the more involved water quality monitoring at least four times a year (seasonally).

“Testing could be event-related as well,” noted Yorks. “If the stream is really flashy and it responds quickly to rain, that might be an inspiration for doing some event-related sampling. You could get baseline data at normal flow and then catch a sample at high flow.”

To get involved in the water quality monitoring program, contact Webber ([email protected]), Yorks ([email protected]), or Anne Saltman ([email protected]).

“This isn’t a test of how you, on your property, are doing things,” explained Webber. “It won’t come back to haunt you. These are just things that we want to find out about in order to inform you and the community, so they will hopefully be improved down the road. There is nobody that will say ‘Hey, you reported an issue here and you’ve got to deal with it.’ That’s not what we are about.”

CLA is a non-profit volunteer organization made up of residents, homeowners, business owners, and elected officials who strive to protect the environmental and recreational sustainability of Cazenovia Lake. The organization frequently partners with a number of local stakeholders, including businesses, town and village boards, SUNY ESF, Cazenovia College, and Cazenovia High School. Learn more at cazlake.org.

UCAN is a grassroots group in New York’s 22nd Congressional District that actively advocates for environmentally sustainable policies and engages with businesses, schools, and other local community organizations to advance environmental literacy and sustainable practices. For more information, visit unitedclimateaction.org.