Sen. Pete Harckham, Yorktown Supervisor Matt Slater and Ken Belfer.
State Senator Pete Harckham recently announced that he has delivered a $100,000 grant for the Mohegan Lake Improvement District and Town of Yorktown for the installation of a new aeration system and retrofitting existing aeration systems in the lake to remove phosphorus in the lake that is causing large algae blooms each year.
By themselves, most algae and similar single-cell organisms actually benefit marine ecosystems and pose no risk to humans and wildlife. But the expansive, often smelly surface mats of freshwater algae blooms on ponds and lakes can harbor cyanobacteria, a toxic blue-green algae that can sicken swimmers and animals that ingest the water. Phosphorus leaching into the lake and warmer summer temperatures have only increased the algae blooms in the past few years.
“The extensive phosphorous abatement project being undertaken at Mohegan Lake will help restore this important natural resource and make it safe for recreation,” said Harckham. “I am happy to support both the Mohegan Lake Improvement District and Town of Yorktown in this effort with state funding that will reduce costs that would otherwise be shouldered by local taxpayers. I am thankful to Ken Belfer of the Mohegan Lake Improvement District and all the residents for their efforts to address the challenges regarding the algae blooms and their creating models of success for other lake communities.”
Wooded areas and residential neighborhoods surround Mohegan Lake. For a number of years, blue-green algae blooms have interfered with seasonal recreation use of the 103-acre lake, with the local beaches often closed down for long stretches of the summer. A homemade aeration system and periodic treatments of copper compounds, which settle in the sediment, have not…