Most people assume the water

they're drinking is safe and

protected by government

regulations.

However, one community in

Central New York is learning

that even the most pristine of

lakes can fall prey to the

effects of climate change and

the human footprint.

This segment is part of an

ongoing public-media reporting

initiative called

"Peril & Promise," telling the

human stories and solutions of

climate change.

♪♪

>> Well, this is the first time

that any of us that have been

around the lake for a period of

time have ever seen an algae

bloom of this nature.

On September 13th, we got a call

from a gentleman across the

lake.

And he said that he thought he

had an algae bloom, and could we

check it?

And we located some strips of

algae on the surface of the lake

and we scooped up a little bit

of that and we sent it into the

lab at ESF for analysis.

And it wasn't much.

It was really quite modest.

And so we didn't worry too much

about it on that day.

And that was a Wednesday.

On Friday, I got up in the

morning, walked out onto the

deck, and looked out at the

lake.

And -- holy cow -- there was a

big band of green algae all

across the surface of the lake

in front of the house.

And about two hours later, we

got a call from the lab.

>> We will sometimes get 60 to

70 samples a day.

And so to actually process them

through quick enough, we have to

have instrumental technique that

can do it on the order of

seconds.

The ones we see that are

interesting then go back under a

very traditional microscope.

We've done 3,000 samples this

summer.

Cyanobacteria, blue-green algae,

are a very, very old lineage.

They first came around about

3 billion years ago.

Most blue-green algae, or most

cyanobacteria, are not toxic.

However, the few that do are

actually quite common.

So we see them in a lot of the

different water bodies around

here.

We saw the data where it had

been really accumulated on the

shoreline of the village.

And that was what we would say

was an extreme toxicity.

>> Well, I can say we live on

the lake and pull our water from

the lake.

We get online, and, all of a

sudden, the health department's

telling us, "It's dead-dog

levels.

Don't let your dog go in."

So that was terrifying.

>> Frankly, we'd been pretty

smug over the years, because

we've always prided ourselves

living on one of the cleanest

lakes in the world.

It's a double-"A"-rated lake.

The city of Syracuse and

surrounding areas get their

potable drinking water from this

lake.

>> And we were told not to brush

our teeth, not to cook our pasta

with it, not to shower with it,

even, because the microcystins

vaporize in the steam in the

shower, so take a quick shower.

So we were left shocked,

basically.

>> When we talk about climate

change, the models predict that

we will get more rain in the

spring, which should wash more

nutrients into our lakes,

followed by dry, relatively

low-wind, warm, and sunny

periods in the later parts of

the summer.

Those are exactly the conditions

that should lead to more

blue-green-algae blooms.

>> The factor that seemed to

kick this one off was the

increase in nutrients, and that

was caused, we think, by these

torrential, torrential,

heavy-rain events.

>> Our little ankle-deep creek

turned into a thigh-deep river.

And we had literally tons of

silt come into our beach and go

south, and it changed the whole

ecosystem of our little piece of

the world.

>> And, all of a sudden, the

nutrient mix was right, it was

correct, and all the other stuff

was there, and -- bingo -- the

bloom came out.

And those heavy-rain events are

a factor that's due to climate

change.

>> Why do these blooms go away?

And they go away because the

weather gets cold in the fall.

What we're seeing with climate

change is -- our water is

starting to stratify earlier in

the spring and it's turning over

later in the fall.

So, from the point of a

blue-green algae, I have just

increased the time I have to

grow.

>> It was alarming to me to know

that a citizen's organization

found this, that the

municipalities and the counties

weren't checking for it.

Maybe we can be more thorough

than what's required by the

health department.

>> It's definitely not hopeless.

It will require some time to

make the shifts that we need to

make.

>> We need to stop thinking of

the lake as an economic

commodity, primarily, and we

need to start thinking of it as

an ecosystem.

What can we do to improve the

health of our lake?

♪♪