Onondaga Lake Water Quality Information

Background

Once classified as one of the most polluted lakes in America, Onondaga Lake is in the process of a renaissance, which is increasing regional interest in on-water recreational activity.

Recreational Status

Metropolitan Onondaga Lake is the centerpiece of the most popular park in Central New York and a haven for boating activity.  Syracuse University’s men’s and women’ s crew teams, the sold out Onondaga Lake Park marina (90 slips), Salt City Bassmasters Fishing Club, and the sailing focused Onondaga Yacht Club are long time, regular users.  The Syracuse Chargers Community Rowing Club and high school crew teams are emerging higher level users, with the addition of boat rentals and expansion to the marina high priority agenda items for Onondaga County Parks.  The top fishermen in the world competing in the 2007 Bassmaster Memorial  raved about fishing and compared the water to lakes in Florida, and the North American Fishing Club is now touting the lake as one of the country’s top ten hotspots for bass.

Water Quality - Bacteria

Bacteria levels in the northern end of Onondaga Lake are similar to other area lakes except following extreme rainfall events.

Rain affects water quality in all lakes and rivers by carrying stormwater runoff into the surface waters.  Such runoff often contains unwanted materials, such as sediment, nutrients and bacteria. Bacteria carried in runoff comes from variety of sources including waste from wildlife, pets, agriculture sources, and, in the case of Onondaga Lake, combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

Bacteria levels in portions of Onondaga Lake typically increase after significant storm events, primarily in the southern end of the lake where most tributaries receiving CSOs are located.  Bacteria levels in the northern end of the lake (in the Willow Bay area) are less impacted by rainfall events.  From 2005 - 2007 monitored bacteria levels in the Willow Bay portion of the lake reached a level of concern for contact recreation only once (July 2006) following a severe rainfall event. Bacteria levels returned to normal after several days.

Water Quality - Hazardous Substances

There is no increased risk associated with contact with Onondaga Lake surface water from hazardous substances.

Onondaga Lake is listed as a hazardous waste site because of industrial contaminants found in some of the sediments in the lake bottom.    Most of the contaminated sediments are in the southern portion of the lake bottom or in the deeper bottom areas (up to 50-60 feet) in the middle of the lake.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Honeywell International have developed a plan to cleanup the contaminated sediments. In developing a plan to clean up contaminated lake bottom sediments, a Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) was performed.  In simple terms, the HHRA found that the most significant exposure risk is from ingestion of contaminated fish, or from direct exposure to contaminated sediments in the southern end of the lake.

The findings of the HHRA can be found in the Record of Decision (the cleanup plan) at the following State Department of Environmental Conservation web site under “Summary of Site Risks”:

(http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/remediation_hudson_pdf/onondagalakerod.pdf)