Bring nose plugs, at times, to the northern end of Cayuga Lake, said one Cayuga Lake waterfront landowner.

While much discussion and planning locally has focused on Owasco Lake's water quality improvements, the lake along the county's western boundary also needs some improvements.

Bill Hecht, who owns property in Springport, bordering the northern end of the Cayuga Lake, said it doesn't take tests and experiments to view the large amounts of discharge that run into Cayuga Lake daily and especially during storm events.

“You don't have to do testing, just get out and go up the creeks during a storm event,” Hecht said.

Just as the southern end of Owasco Lake suffers from intense volumes of weed and algae, so does the northern end of Cayuga Lake. Along with stagnant weed and algae comes a horrible smell Hecht describes as rotting eggs. Hecht said sometimes the smell stays in the air for six weeks forcing him, at certain points, to temporarily leave his home.

“Overall, Cayuga Lake is pretty good for water quality. It faces similar problems to Owasco Lake but they are not as severe,” said Sharon Anderson, watershed steward for Cayuga Lake.

Anderson confirmed that there are excessive weed problems in the northern part of the lake because prevailing winds force them to float in that direction. Cayuga Lake also faces high nutrient levels, but the reduction of phosphorous discharge from a water treatment plant in Ithaca has helped reduce the lake's phosphorous levels.

While nearby lakefront homeowners, like Hecht, struggle to manage the weeds, Anderson said that large weed amounts do have some positive effects on the lake.

Anderson said it increases small fish populations that hide in the weeds. Weeds also hamper the ability for waves to reach the shore easily, preventing erosion.

Hecht, a retired farmer who earned a master's from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said that scientists and members of the public already know that problems with weeds and high phosphorous levels in the lake exist. But what to do, he said, is yet to be answered.

He believes the answer derives from storm event testing, which he says really is more observing. “If you're not testing during storm events you're not getting half the picture,” Hecht said. “We need to find where the problem is coming from.”