NEWS

State must address salty Seneca Lake water, group says

Steve Orr
@SOrr1

The state Department of Health should step in to make sure consumers are aware of the saltiness of the water in Seneca Lake, a lake-booster association says.

Water in Seneca Lake is four times' saltier than the other Finger Lakes and may be too salty for people on low-sodium diets to drink. Despite that, two of the six municipalities that draw drinking water from the largest Finger Lake have not tested for sodium or reported sodium levels to consumers, according to the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association.

The association, which highlighted the high salt levels in a news release on Monday, has sent a letter to state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker asking for better monitoring and public notification.

"SLPWA believes that, because of the unusual sodium content of Seneca Lake ... additional action by the state is warranted,” said Mary Anne Kowalski, the association's president.

Seneca's salinity may be due to the presence of active and closed salt mines near the south end of the lake.

Seneca Lake with the U.S. Salt mine complex in the foreground.

The association has been gathering information about salinity as part of a planned request that state environmental officials add Seneca Lake to its list of priority water bodies because of the salt issue. That step could lead to creation of a plan to address the high salinity.

The saltiness of Seneca Lake's water is nothing new. Salt deposits lie beneath the region, and the first mine was dug to gather that salt more than 120 years ago. There has been increased attention to salinity in recent years because of controversy over expanded use of abandoned salt mines to store natural gas and other hydrocarbons. Opponents of the storage plans fear the expansion will exacerbate the saltiness.

The association said sodium levels in the lake are about 80 milligrams per liter, or roughly 80 parts per million. Four municipalities that draw water from the lake — the city of Geneva, the villages of Ovid and Waterloo and the town of Romulus — all report sodium levels in that range. Sampling of surface and bottom water conducted last year by the Finger Lakes Institute found similar numbers, the association said.

There are no strict standards for sodium in drinking water, but guidelines hold that people on very low sodium diets, as well as infants, should not consume water with more than 20 milligrams per liter of sodium.  People on restricted-salt diets should not drink water containing more than 270 mg/liter, the state health department recommends.

The department requires water-system operators to notify consumers if sodium levels in drinking water exceed 20 mg/liter.

State regulations say a community water supply operator should test for sodium if it thinks it will find elevated levels. But two systems that draw from Seneca Lake, the village of Watkins Glen and town of Hector, both in Schuyler County, had never done so.

The state health department directed both operators to begin testing sodium levels this year.

Harley Connelly, Watkins Glens' water department supervisor, said his first sample, collected in March, came back at 76 ppm. That number will be included in the public drinking-water report the village issues next year.

The lake association also asked Zucker to address the fact that many people living in the area draw water on their own from the lake or from private wells whose water could be high in sodium. New York law does not require that well water be tested for sodium.

The sodium levels in Seneca Lake are similar to those that were found in the well water used by the village of Webster in Monroe County. Water quality there was a subject of controversy for years, culminating in the election of village leaders in 2013 who opposed maintaining the historic village water supply.

The Monroe County Water Authority agreed to begin supplying water to village customers later that year.

SOrr1@DemocratandChronicle.com