Lake Friendly Living
What happens around your home matters…
As one of the residents who use Cayuga Lake as a primary water source or for recreation, you can make a difference in the water quality of the lake. The Cayuga Lake watershed encompasses approximately 785 square miles where storm water runoff moves into the lake and impacts its water quality. Residential properties generate part of that runoff.
What is storm water runoff?
Rain that falls on natural surfaces is infiltrated into the ground. Rain that falls on impermeable surfaces, such as roof tops, paved surfaces, etc. cannot soak into the ground and moves across these surfaces carrying sediment and pollutants with it into the lake.
How is Cayuga Lake water quality affected by sediment and pollutants?
Sediments can cloud water affecting lake plants, fish, and other aquatic life. Sediments can form deltas that impede navigation and lake access. Sediments can create habitats where invasive species thrive. Pollutants include excess nutrients, bacteria, pathogens and debris that can make water unsafe for drinking and swimming and disrupt healthy aquatic life.
What Can You Do?
You can join our Lake Friendly Living program and adopt Lake Friendly Living practices!
The program is simple and focuses on three key ways to help protect Cayuga Lake.
Our program is simple.
It is designed to help you learn and apply a level of practices that best suits your situation and abilities.
1. Explore the Cayuga Lake Home Owner’s Guide (linked below)
2. Review the 12 Simple Strategies, and,
3. Choose the Best Practices you will use to make your property more lake friendly.
Take the Pledge
Please take the pledge to adopt best practices that will help reduce or eliminate pollutants and minimize runoff.
Access Your Lake Friendly Living Resources Here
With your pledge, we encourage you to download our
Cayuga Lake Home Owner’s Guide. The guide provides you
with simple steps to practice lake friendly living.
Smart Steps for Clean Water includes even more ways to protect the Lake.
Cayuga Lake Home Owner’s Guide
Take the Pledge!
reduce or eliminate pollutants and minimize runoff.
Thank you to those who have taken the pledge!
Please take the pledge and practice lake friendly living.
Hilary Lambert.
Nancy & Ed Currier
Joshua & Arianne Shafer
Sue Ruoff
Nancy Schreiber
Cheryl Beach
Caterina Mcfadden
Colleen Wright
Deb Grantham
Linda & Michael Duttweiler
Lynn Leopold
Jenn Tufano
Don Wilson
Nicolas Van de Walle
LFL Friend
Regi Teasley
Ruth Groff
John Abel
LFL Friend
Bill Foster
LFL Friend
Robert Rieger
Jim and Karen Chamberlain
Ann and Bill Kaminski
Click image to enlarge.
Click image to enlarge.