A Management Strategy for Oneida Lake and its ... - CNY RPDB Home

maintenance practices are also a significant
source of sediment, as the ditches provide a
direct route to streams. Although the beaver
provides various ecological benefits, the
burrowing activities of beavers can cause
shoreline erosion, and the breaching or
breaking apart of beaver dams can result in
increased sediment loads downstream.
Identification of Priority Areas:
Priority areas for erosion and sedimentation
were identified based on existing information
from four different sources: tributary monitoring
results, Priority Waterbodies List, stream
erosion surveys, and County Water Quality
Strategy reports. These programs are fully
described in the Oneida Lake State of the Lake
and Watershed Report.
Tributary Monitoring: The 2002-2003 Oneida
Lake Tributary Monitoring Program involved
sampling at the base of 11 tributaries flowing
into Oneida Lake to document nutrient and
sediment loading to the lake and to prioritize
streams. Of the 11 tributaries sampled,
Chittenango, Cowaselon, Oneida, Limestone
and Fish Creeks have the greatest loss of
suspended matter from the watershed. Soil
erosion is one of the major sources of nutrient
loss from watersheds and is positively correlated
with total phosphorus and TKN loss in
all of the Oneida Lake tributaries studied.
Additional information is available in the full
report, “Nutrient and Suspended Sediment
Losses From Oneida Lake Tributaries, 2002-
2003,” which can be found at
www.cnyrpdb.org/oneidalake. For the next
phase of the monitoring program, additional
sampling is being done on Oneida Creek.
Segment analysis, a technique to identify the
sources of pollutants along a stream, is being
applied. In addition, research studies, including
the Analysis of the Oneida Creek Delta in
South Bay project, will continue to analyze the
bed load (sand fraction) contribution of Fish
and Oneida Creeks to the total sediment load.
Priority Waterbodies List: A summary of
waterbodies affected by sediment, as listed in
the NYS DEC’s 1996 Priority Waterbodies
List (PWL), is presented in the table below.
Efforts are currently underway to add sediment
as a primary pollutant of Oneida Lake in
the next edition of the PWL.
PWL Segment Summary for the Oneida Lake Watershed (1996)
Segment Name Subwatershed
Primary Use
Primary
Severity
Affected
Pollutant*
Primary Source
Chittenango Creek Chittenango Creek Fish Propagation Threatened Silt (Sediment) Construction
Lower Oneida Ck. Oneida Creek Fish Propagation Impaired Silt (Sediment) Agriculture
Wood Creek Wood Creek Fish Survival Stressed Silt (Sediment) Agriculture
Jamesville Res. Limest./Butternut Bathing Impaired Silt (Sediment) Agriculture
Limestone Creek
Limestone /
Resource
Fish Propagation Impaired Silt (Sediment)
Butternut
Extraction
Poolsbrook
Tributary
Chittenango Creek Fish Propagation Threatened Silt (Sediment) Construction
Source: NYS DEC (1996) Priority Waterbodies List for the Oswego-Seneca-Oneida River Basin
* Note: In the Oneida Lake watershed, the following segments are also listed on the PWL because silt/sediment is
a secondary pollutant affecting water quality: Butternut Creek Tributary, Canada Creek, Meadow Brook, Pools
Brook, and Sconondoa Creek.
page 30
Chapter 3: Priority Areas