One of the first municipalities to preserve the quality of its drinking water source was the city of Syracuse.

Its protection program for Skaneateles Lake goes back more than 100 years, said Amy Samuels, watershed educator with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County.

"It's held up as being a very good water supply," she said.

Skaneateles Lake's problems aren't as severe as other Finger Lakes. It is one of only eight lakes within the state with explicit statutory restrictions on sewage discharge in the lake, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation's 2001 report on Finger Lakes water quality.

The lake is considered to have such a high quality that the state Department of Health granted a waiver so Syracuse does not have to filter the water, just chlorinate and fluoridate it, before it becomes drinking water.

Many lakeshore residents get their water from pipes coming directly from the lake.

"There's more everyone can do, but there's already a lot being done," Samuels said.

One of the watershed's most successful preventative programs is the Skaneateles Lake Watershed Agricultural program, said Lee Macbeth, watershed control coordinator for the city of Syracuse water department.

This initiative helps farmers develop and implement whole farm plans to reduce the risk of bacteria, nutrients, fertilizers and sediment running off their land into the lake.

Since it's inception in 1994, the program has had 44 farmers enroll; their farms consist of 95 percent of the agricultural land in the watershed. With 48 percent of the watershed classified as agricultural, the program has the potential to be significant, Macbeth said.

"We don't force anyone into joining. It's all voluntary," she said. Other measures are in place to protect water quality, Macbeth said. Skaneateles Lake also has two full-time Syracuse city employees monitoring the lake and watershed to look for violations. And the city is purchasing conservation easements from willing sellers in environmentally sensitive areas of the watershed.

It's difficult to gauge the effectiveness of these programs with data because testing can only show so much. These programs are more about stopping potentially hazardous situations before they get out of control.

"We did not expect to see a physical impact on the lake when we started because the quality was so excellent to begin with," she said.

But with lakeshore property being highly sought-after real estate, development pressures are mounting. Residential development has the potential to drastically change the makeup of the watershed, creating more impervious surfaces and runoff that could carry harmful chemicals into the lake.

"We see most of the pressure on the lakeshore itself," Macbeth said. "Skaneateles Lake has become a prime tourist and residential area with a lot of pressure to develop smaller lots on the lakefront."

The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County handles much of the public outreach, the types of programs that show people why they should care about maintaining Skaneateles Lake's water quality.

Many of CCE's programs get residents out into the watershed so they can see what they could lose if contamination becomes a bigger threat. Their series of streamside walks last summer were popular and a good educational tool, Samuels said.

"You value what you know," she said. "In this culture of go, go, go, it's really important to show people the incredible resources right in the community and how worthy they are of being protected."

As with many watersheds, the sensitive issue of who is responsible for contamination can be tense. Samuels works to facilitate often difficult discussions between residents and farmers each trying to blame the other for watershed problems.

In reality, though, they can both be proactive in the situation, Samuels said.

"It's really easy for people to point a finger, but it's all those groups working together protecting the lake that will make it work," Samuels said.