Newhouse Alexia Fall Workshop, Oct. 2025
Known for exceptionally high-quality drinking water, Skaneateles Lake is at risk from the acceleration of infrastructure development surrounding the lake. Runoff, invasive species and algae blooms threaten the lake’s viability.
Considered one of the cleanest lakes in the United States, Skaneateles Lake is located in central New York, spanning three counties and providing unfiltered drinking water to the city of Syracuse and other municipalities. The lake currently faces multiple environmental pollution issues, such as toxic blue-green algae blooms, as well as contaminated runoff due to development.
Mike Crawford, a local fly fisherman and native resident to Jordan, New York, prepares his rod to fish for trout in the Jordan Creek. He stands among brush and debris from the record-setting flood the creek faced in May of 2025, which crested at 5.9 feet, 6 inches higher than the previous record, washing many of the creek’s trout downstream past the nearby dam.
Though Ninemile creek remains one of the healthiest and fertile trout streams in the region because of its geology and structure, siltation — fine sediment that has settled in the water from development runoff —pollutes it, acting like a blanket and suffocating aquatic life, which is the basis of the food chain for the fish. “These trout streams suffer because of progress and development of our infrastructure… something has to suffer, and it’s this…” Crawford says.
Mike Crawford stands on the edge of the Ninemile Creek fishing for trout. This is Mike’s 23rd year as an outdoor guide, and he recalls noticing changes in the fish and water around twelve years ago. “I've always kind of been in it, in the local environment, with a rod in my hand most, 90-100% of the time. But what I've noticed is that even though people have come, and politicians have come and gone and I've watched these townships just burgeon into huge population centers… we just continue to treat our local environment as a conduit for our waste in the name of development and progress,” Crawford says.
“The trout are the canary,” Crawford says. “If the trout are doing well, the stream is doing well, if the trout are not doing well, then that’s a sign something isn’t well in the water."
As harmful algae blooms contaminate the water of Skaneateles Lake, the growths are further fueled by the invasive species of zebra mussels and quagga mussels, as the mussels pull phosphorus, a vital nutrient for algae growth, up from the bottom of the lake. These species of mussels were introduced to Great Lakes in the 1980s from freshwater ballast from transoceanic boats and have since made their way to Skaneateles Lake.
Construction along the shoreline of Skaneateles Lake highlights human sources of erosion, destroying biodiversity and the ecosystem along the shoreline of the water. “The number one organization right now theoretically in charge of spearheading and understanding and researching the health of Skaneateles Lake is called the Skaneateles Lake Association and it is made up of the homeowners who live on the shores of the lake…it's like putting the bank robbers in charge of the bank,” Crawford says.
Skaneateles Lake provides drinking water to over 165,000 people within Skaneateles, Syracuse, Dewitt, Jordan, and Elbridge, New York. A rain garden sits outside of the Syracuse Water Treatment Plant, highlighting the importance of riparian buffers along the lake, which include native plants and shrubs whose roots and soil slow runoff and reduce sediment pollution.
Camillus Mills, located in Camillus, New York, is a former knife factory located along the Ninemile Creek, and sits on 4.28 acres of land, most of which is pavement. Residual heavy metal chemicals such as lead and petroleum runoff from the old factory into the creek through old pipes, contributing to the siltation pollution in the creek, as well as invasive moss that sits at the bottom of the waterway.
A storm drain located in the parking lot outside of Camillus Mills above Ninemile Creek. This property has been identified by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as being affected by industrial pollution contamination.