Celebrating Seneca

The Hand of Man

Seneca has its problems, but as a whole it’s healthier than most.

Ralph "Buzzy" DeFelice ‘61 has spent the better part of his life appreciating and advocating for Seneca. Growing up, DeFelice spent his summers at the family cottage on the shores of Kashong Bay, roughly seven miles south of campus. Upon graduation DeFelice remained by Seneca Lake and today he has a dental practice in Geneva.

"It’s my back yard. It’s our back yard, really," says DeFelice, a founding member and past president of Seneca Lake Pure Waters, a 1,600-member community non-profit concerned about the health and welfare of Seneca Lake. "So many issues and concerns determine the health of the lake and the things we can and should be doing. Political boundaries don’t respect watersheds and ours covers seven counties and 23 towns."

DeFelice talks about watershed management as a multidisciplinary experience, and Pure Waters is ambitious in its attack. It now spearheads, among other things, a ground-level examination of roadside runoff patterns (a study administered by a local Cooperative Extension). It’s an example of how far-reaching environmental effects on the lake can be.

Ellen Lauterback ‘98 (pictured), a geoscience major, was one of two students who spent the better part of this summer driving every road in the Seneca Lake watershed, collecting data on road construction and roadside geology. They noted the stability of the shoulders and gutters, and runoff patterns wherever roads and embankments were especially steep (or where construction and maintenance are simply negligent).

The data they collected will be used to help Pure Waters lobby local engineers and landowners on conscientious road building. And this is only one small front in the complex war to preserve Seneca Lake.

At first blush, Seneca Lake appears relatively healthy, but it changes constantly — variations in the food chain, chemical composition, and the shoreline are more rapid than you might imagine. Some change is good. The garbage-filled moat ringing the north end is gone, as are the foundries, factories, and mills that still stood, some as late as 1962. Today, pollutants wash into the Lake from farms, industry, and roadways; new species alter the food chain; boat traffic rises; and salinity fluctuates mysteriously.

Twenty years ago, the concerns were mercury and phosphates. As a student, Jeff Cornwell ‘76 conducted an Honors project on mercury levels, eventually published in a scientific journal. Cornwell — today a scientist at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Laboratory — found "significant input of mercury far in excess of natural levels," and pinpointed the primary sources. They included power plants which "distill the mercury out of coal," abandoned industrial sites lining the Keuka outlet, "a little bit of municipal input in the Geneva area," and salt mining in Watkins Glen.

Regulations regarding mercury and phosphates (from laundry detergent and the like) have nearly eliminated these concerns, although fish intake restrictions still prevail.

Today, Seneca Lake’s health is "pretty good," says Professor of Geoscience William Ahrnsbrak. Its high salinity "continues to be a puzzle." Seneca occupies the site of a shallow, saline sea that evaporated more than a million years ago, trapping enormous veins of salt beneath the earth that Seneca, so deep, still taps. The high salinity, apparent to anyone with glass doors on their shower, is a natural Seneca phenomenon.

But for no apparent reason, 30 years ago or so the levels rose close to the 250 ppm that renders water undrinkable. Then, in the mid-1970s, they dropped, although they remain high for an inland lake (and still only .5 percent as salty as the ocean). Self-regulation by salt miners and better road-salting policies might explain the improvements, Ahrnsbrak says.

Probably the greatest concerns are in the area of food chain intrusion. The notorious zebra mussel first arrived in North America, accidentally, in the cargo holds of Soviet freighters entering the Great Lakes. It reached Seneca in 1992. Prolific breeders with no natural predators, zebra mussels spread rapidly and build dense colonies virtually anywhere they can grab hold. Thus far, their only known detriment is clogging water intakes and other mechanical systems.

Their food-chain effect is still on resolved. They are syphon feeders, and have dramatically increased water clarity by filtering out small plant life. Where before it was difficult to see 10 feet down into the water, it is now possible to see 30 feet down. That sounds positive, but may carry predation implications. "If you want it for aesthetic reasons, it’s good," says John Halfman, assistant professor of geoscience. "If you want it for fishing, it’s terrible. . . . You eliminate the plants, then everything else crashes." — P.R./D.C.

The Seneca Lake series was researched and written by Dana Cooke and Peter Rolph '85 — writer/editors in the Office of College Relations. Portions of the series also appear in the Fall '97 issue of The Pulteney St. Survey. To request a copy, e-mail Susan Murad at murad@hws.edu.