The Lansing Town Board voted Wednesday to contribute $7,000 to the Community Science Institute (CSI) to support Cayuga Lake monitoring.  CSI Outreach Coordinator Nathaniel Launer said that Lansing volunteers have been monitoring water in Lansing since 2006, providing a valuable database of findings that citizens and governments can use to identify pressing issues related to water within the municipality.

"Together with their care and dedication we have coordinated over 52 monitoring events, collecting over 4,300 measurements of water from ten locations on Salmon Creek and eight locations on the shoreline Salt Point and Meyers Park," Launer said. "All of this data, can be found in our public water body database, which now holds over 60,000 regulatory body measurements of water quality from 18 sub-watersheds across the Cayuga Lake watershed."

CSI's database holds information on pollution from septic systems near the lake, harmful algal blooms, and sediment and nutrient runoff in Salmon Creek.  Launer said the volunteer model allows CSI to collect the data at a third to half of the cost of commercial monitoring.

"We're hearing dedication of our volunteers really fully reflects the Lansing community and their care for our water resources," Launer said.

LaVigne asked Launer whether the focus is on Lansing or all of Cayuga Lake.  Launer replied that the focus is all over the lake.  LaVigne said he is concerned about water quality around Ludlowville.  He said that, as an advocate for public water, he is very concerned about the quality of water coming from the lake.

"Many years ago my father was on this board, and they put a water line into Ludlowville because they were concerned about the water quality," he said. "I'm concerned about the effluent, not because of farmers, but I'm concerned about the effluent that's coming from Ludlowville itself.  I'm wondering if septic systems are failing.  I'm wondering if septic systems need to be replaced, or if we need a sewer system there.  I'm just planting seeds for you, and hopefully you'll now have 7,000 reasons to think about this and, hopefully, to deal with it sooner or later."

Councilwoman Bronwyn Losey proposed contributing $7,000 to CSI's lake monitoring effort.  Supervisor Ed LaVigne said he was going to propose $5,000, but was happy with the $7,000 figure if the rest of the board members agreed.  They did, approving the expenditure, to be taken from the Town's fund balance, 5-0.

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