LAKEWOOD — Even though the proposed Chautauqua Lake District met its fate, County Executive PJ Wendel is focused on the science associated with the lake.

At a recent work session, the Wendel shared his thoughts with the Lakewood Village Board of Trustees. If it would have been approved, the village would have been part of the lake district.

“So we’re just going to keep moving along,” Wendel said. “I’m focused on the science. We’ve done a lot with the Jefferson Project. We’re going to continue to work with them. Science is really what’s driving the lake.”

Trustee Ellen Barnes said she would like to have only one group doing studies. Wendel countered by saying it’s OK to have more than one group doing studies, but his one problem with that scenario is one group may say its data are better than other groups’ data. An example, he said, is where Group A dismisses other groups’ data, and labels it psuedo science because the data does not align with Group A’s data.

“To say their science is pseudo science because it doesn’t suit your narrative is a very challenging thing,” Wendel,” said.

According to jeffersonproject.rpi.edu, The Jefferson Project at Lake George — a groundbreaking collaboration between IBM Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and The FUND for Lake George — expanded its statewide leadership role in the study of harmful algal blooms and other water-quality threats recently with a new $1 million research project on Chautauqua lake, made possible through funding from Chautauqua Institution and a county coalition. The new research complements The Jefferson Project’s foundational research program on Lake George in Warren County, now in its eighth year.

Both Chautauqua Lake and Lake George are among the (2 priority waterbodies identified for special protective efforts by New York State, as part of its harmful algal bloom (HAB) initiative, and are at extreme ends of the HAB spectrum.

Chautauqua Lake has been severely impacted by harmful algal blooms (HABs) for decades, particularly in its southern basin, while Lake George, widely regarded. as. one of the clearest and cleanest lakes in the country, experienced its first confirmed HAB. The Lake George HAB was relatively small and short-lived, and samples gathered at the time are now the subject of an intensive scientific analysis by Jefferson Project researchers to determine its cause.

Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy Executive Director John Jablonski Il said in the Jan. 15 edition of the Post-Journal that researchers from the Jefferson Project, SUNY-Fredonia, and Bowling Green State University are using multiple sampling and monitoring approaches over several years with the intent to better understand the watershed nutrient loading and internal nutrient loading to the lake and the lake stratification, weather, and wind conditions as they relate to what triggers problematic harmful algae blooms.

“It’s just insane, the amount of technology that’s in that lake right now,” Wendel added.