Owasco Lake Water Crisis: "If we lose this lake we lose everything"

Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannettino sounds off over denial of updated regulations for Owasco Lake during in-depth conversation on Inside the FLX.

Owasco Lake has a problem and local officials say if something doesn’t change soon one of the region’s largest drinking water sources could be jeopardized.

Several years ago the two communities most closely connected to Owasco Lake set out to update the 1984 Owasco Lake Watershed Rules and Regulations to improve, protect, and preserve water quality within the Owasco Lake watershed. “A lot in life has changed since the 1980s so this was an important step, which was taken because we were the canary in the coal mine,” explained Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannetino. The update aimed to address modern environmental challenges and ensure the long-term sustainability of the water supply.

That incident, which landed the City of Auburn and Town of Owasco in this situation, was testing back in 2016 that showed toxins from harmful algal blooms in Owasco Lake had made their way into treated drinking water. The proposed regulations underwent an extensive review process, which included public participation, stakeholder meetings, and a public comment period. The final draft of the updated regulations was presented to the Auburn City Council and the Owasco Town Board in October 2020. Both bodies endorsed the regulations, and they were subsequently submitted to the New York State Department of Health for review and approval​.

The updated regulations emphasize reducing phosphorus runoff, controlling harmful algal blooms, and managing agricultural practices to mitigate nutrient pollution. These measures are crucial for maintaining the lake's water quality and have been linked to HAB outbreaks across the Finger Lakes and Central New York.

The City and Town requested — and expected — transparency in the review process. Giannettino said Friday morning that, if anything, his office expected a revised version of rules to come back. Instead, the state Department of Health, in a letter, denied the request outright — putting years of work and extensive regulatory updates in jeopardy. The changes were intended to safeguard the drinking water supply for approximately 45,000 people. It leveraged a science-based approach to understanding and dealing with the issues that have arisen with pollutants impacting lake quality.

“It was a seven year process that was community driven and encouraged by the State of New York,” Giannettino continued. “As recent as a few months ago, they were saying that they were going to offer up revisions to what we had sent them. Now all of a sudden with no explanation, they're saying that the revisions are no longer needed.”

The shock was clear in Auburn and prompted City and Town officials to hold a press conference Friday afternoon.

“This completely caught us off guard,” an exacerbated Giannettino added. “We’ve been pretty clear from the beginning that what we sent to the state of New York, which was approved in the City and Town, should have been approved because the state was involved in the process. They were at the table with every community stakeholder including the residents, drinking water consumers, agriculture stakeholders, etc. And here we are seven years later, the Department of Health is saying this whole process wasn’t even necessary, despite the fact they encouraged us to do it.”

Mayor Giannettino didn’t shy away from criticizing the state for its ‘double-talk’.

“It’s the old Albany double talk,” he said. “They’re going to tell everybody all the work they’ve done, all the money they’ve spent — but the reality is that the issue has not improved. In fact, it’s gotten worse; and it just makes no sense.” He went on to call it an ‘abdication of responsibility’ by the state, to ignore the issues at Owasco Lake and the broader risk it poses to all of Central New York.

Mayor Giannettino said its a contradiction for the state Department of Health to say it doesn’t have the authority to deal with the issues laid out in the updated regulations, when older ones are already on the books. He also drew comparisons to the Coronavirus Pandemic, when the state Health Department took broad steps to shut down the state’s economy. “They shut down the entire state in the interest of public health, and we expect them to take the actions necessary to protect our public health here.”

Looking forward, the Mayor says he’s worried about what could happen if no updates are made. “We’ve made so much progress locally on so many levels — we’ve seen a renaissance in our city, in our downtown, and we have Micron coming to Central New York. It’s water that made all of this possible; and if we lose this lake — we lose everything.”

Giannettino says the next step for the City will be taking the issue to Auburn’s federal representatives. “We’re taking this to our federal representatives because our opinion is that the state of New York is violating the Clean Water Act,” he explained. “I’m trying to remain optimistic on this issue, but it’s increasingly difficult to do so. It seems that those that have the authority to seriously address this issue lack the political will to do so, and that’s unfortunate.”