Moon Lake Preservation Council

One of the most insidious problems on our lake is Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), which are a kind of algal bloom caused by blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria. Some cyanobacteria release cyanotoxins, which are harmful to other species, including humans and other animals. Cyanotoxins can affect other species simply by coming into contact with them (swimming in contaminated water) or through ingestion (drinking contaminated water, even if it has been treated and filtered). Because of this, it's important that we keep an eye out for HABs in Moon Lake. That's where you come in! HABs can look take on several different appearances. In Upstate New York, they usually look like spilled green paint or pea soup: While green algae algal blooms (shown below) can be gross and a nuisance, they are not dangerous to human health. If you're in doubt over whether something is a HAB or not, report it anyway! The DEC will help make the determination. This season, if you see a suspicious algal bloo...

Luckily (or perhaps unluckily) for Moon Lake, we have a NYSDEC boat launch present. That means that our little lake is a priority for water quality monitoring, and that CSLAP isn't the only source of data The oldest data publicly available comes from a 1996 report that pulls data from as far back as 1979. The full document can be found by using the NYSFOLA website CSLAP report search feature here:  https://nysfola.org/cslap-report-search/ . Parameters outlined in the report include temperature, transparency, conductivity, pH, color, phosphorus levels, nitrogen levels, and chlorophyll a measurements. Conclusions drawn from the above mentioned report include the following: The above table shows the results of Moon Lake's CSLAP testing, along with the parameters for classifying lakes as eutrophic, mesotrophic, and oligotrophic . Moon Lake is a eutrophic lake. This means that the lake is highly productive and the water contains high concentrations of minerals and nutrients, such a...