Paul Mrozek

Substandard wells are believed to be the cause of 20 town of Batavia residences’ where water went bad this spring, according to the Genesee County Health Department.

“We can’t really tie it to an event or a source,” said David Whitcroft, environmental health director for the county Health Department, said Monday.
Alex's Place

Whitcroft said DNA tests done on water samples by the state laboratory in Wadsworth, NY, were “fairly inconclusive” in identifying a single source, such as cow manure, for pollution of the wells in homes.

http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/news/article_e414f9da-d4d2-11e3-9d07-001a4bcf887a.html

William J. Kemble

PORT EWEN >> The harvesting of water chestnut plants over the past several years has given the town of Esopus more usable shoreline space with fewer of the pointy black pods to interfere with recreation, the town supervisor said Monday.

John Coutant said the invasive weed is removed from 2 miles of the river in front of beaches and fishing areas.

This year’s harvesting season will start in earnest next month, he said.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20140505/town-of-esopus-having-success-clearing-water-chestnut-plants-from-hudson-river

http://m.niagara-gazette.com/niagaragaz/pm_113101/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=JC5b2Icm

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, called Monday for quick action in curbing the potential threat of toxic algae in Lake Erie.

During a press conference at the Erie Basin Marina, Schumer urged the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide the direction local water treatment plants need to effectively prevent toxins from entering the drink water supply.

Schumer said conditions are ripe this year for a record algae bloom in Lake Erie and that the toxins that this algae produces have the potential to contaminate local drinking water because local water treatment plants do not how to test for the presence of cyanotoxins or how to filter them out.

Schumer noted that cyanotoxins have been listed on the EPA’s list of potential contaminants to regulate since 2011, but since it still has not been added to the official contaminant list, the EPA has not provided sufficient direction for how area water treatment plans should deal with them and other toxins.

http://m.tonawanda-news.com/tonawanda/pm_112993/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=jKXSlXK8