A stream monitoring station in Mayville is pictured. A similar station has been installed near Ball Creek in North Harmony.

NORTH HARMONY — Recently, sheds designated for Water Quality Monitoring Stations have been put up along Ball Creek in the town of North Harmony to help with the Jefferson Project’s research in Chautauqua Lake. The stations are working to monitor mainly salt runoff and are monitoring all water coming through streams to the lake.

The Jefferson Project at Lake George, a state-of-the-art program for water quality and Harmful Algal Bloom research, was introduced to Chautauqua Lake in 2020 in partnership with the Chautauqua County Government, Chautauqua Institution, and the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance. The Jefferson Project is a collaboration of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM Research, and the Lake George Association, which employs a sophisticated technological approach to studying fresh water, with a goal of understanding the impact of human activity on fresh water, and how to mitigate those effects.

“There are 10 stations I think around Chautauqua Lake on private property and in the towns that are monitoring the nutrient load into the lake,” Town Supervisor Robert Yates said. “They monitor things like the float rate and flood water and this is information that they can use to help protect and strengthen the watershed.”

Yates added that Ball Creek is “quite the stream” and that anytime something like a fallen tree blocks it sends sediment and nutrients into Chautauqua Lake.

Stations are scheduled to be operational this year on Dewittville, Mud, Prendergast, Ball, Bemus, and Goose creeks, while a seventh station will monitor flow in the Chadakoin River. Stantec Consulting Services has served as the technical lead during the construction process, and TimberHut Cabin Company of Great Valley.

While stream sampling has been done in the watershed in the past, these new stations have the capability to measure several different water quality variables instantaneously. The sondes are able to measure things like temperature, flow, and salt content and store that data for future computer modeling. The stations can also directly pull water samples remotely for further analysis during storm events, and are equipped with weather stations. Once again following the model of their research on Lake George, these facilities are operated by a computer control panel running specialized software. Data streams from each of these control panels are brought together in an environmental model that has been developed by IBM Research.

More information on the Jefferson Project and the work they are doing at Chautauqua Lake can be found at the Chautauqua Institution’s website, chq.org by searching the Jefferson Project.