Democrats in the Monroe County Legislature want to ban the sale of personal care products containing microbeads within Monroe County. Legislator Dorothy Styk of Perinton introduced the legislation, which will be considered by the Legislature’s Agenda/Charter Committee on September 30. Erie County has passed similar legislation, and Albany and Chautauqua counties are considering bans of […]
Water quality
Posted inNews & Opinion
County’s algae solution: suck it up
Ontario Beach Park has had odor problems for a long time. The culprit: the algae that forms rotting, stinky piles where the beach meets the Charlotte pier. The muck and its odor have been a stubborn nuisance for years, despite periodic efforts to haul some of the accumulation away. Often, the hotter the day, the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Report takes on beach water quality
A new report pegs Ontario Park beach in Charlotte as one of 17 public bathing beaches across the county with persistent contamination problems that lead to a large number of temporary closings. The report from the Natural Resources Defense Council says that each of the beaches failed to meet public health benchmarks more than 25 percent […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Testing the waters
Monroe County public health officials may have found a better way to determine if and when the county’s beaches should be closed to swimming. The county has long used a model that considers several factors, including recent rainfall, algae levels, the Genesee River’s flow into Lake Ontario, and water cloudiness. The model has been refined […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Plastics plague Ontario, too
Researchers have already confirmed the ubiquitous presence of tiny plastic pieces, called “microplastics,” in several of the Great Lakes. Now a SUNY Fredonia professor says that she’s found microplastics in Lake Ontario, too. This summer, SUNY Fredonia associate professor of chemistry Sam Mason led a group of University at Buffalo students in collecting samples from […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Lakes love
A bipartisan group of House representatives called the Great Lakes Caucus has introduced legislation that would provide significant funding to improve water quality in the lakes. | The bill would reauthorize and fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the Great Lakes Legacy Act, and the Great Lakes National Program Office. It would also create the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
League focuses on Lake Ontario
The Rochester League of Women Voters has decided that its advocacy work will include protecting Lake Ontario and addressing issues affecting the lake. During a meeting last week, the group adopted a position drafted by the Lake Michigan League of Women Voters, an interstate organization of league chapters around Lake Michigan. The position spells out […]
