The location is New York state. People are couples with dreams. Fourteen years ago, Jody Price and Griffith Jones purchased a small cottage on the shores of Cayuga Lake. They wanted to spend their twilight years here, but they are now beginning to realize that life has some kind of…surprises…and that not everything is as it seems.
A lake made of water and sediment, no different from other lakes. But for Jody and Griffith, the lake holds memories that tourism boards don’t promote. For the first five years, the couple spent their summers in a cottage just steps from the lake’s crystal blue waters, and everything seemed ideal.
“We are one of the lucky people who can see the water from our cottage door,” says Jody Price, a teacher whose husband is an avid fisherman.
Then in 2017, Jody and Griffith noticed that their coastline had become muddy with a greenish hue. It continued to spread. They weren’t sure about the cause, but had heard about algae that could make people sick. So, to be on the safe side, I called a friend who is a local water expert to investigate. Their fears were confirmed when the friend scooped out a mass of green mush just a few feet away from the shed and tested the sample in the jar. It’s a type of harmful algae that has completely changed their life in the lake.
Green algae on the lake. Photo by Jody Price.
their story is something out of the ordinary twilight zone. And as time went on, it became even more upsetting. When the flowers are in bloom, the couple does not take showers or wash dishes with tap water. Because tap water comes from the lake. Instead, paper plates and plastic utensils are used.
And they aren’t alone.
Since the New York State Department of Environmental Protection first recorded harmful algal blooms in Cayuga Lake in 2013, outbreaks have become more frequent and typically last from July to September. This bloom is caused by cyanobacteria that produce toxins and can be potentially harmful to the environment, people, and animals.
Cayuga Lake has one of the highest numbers of harmful algae blooms reported each year in New York State, according to the state DEC, which tracks blooms across the state using data collected from the public, agency staff and trained volunteer groups. DEC attributes much of this to the agency’s public relations efforts and online reporting system, which helps raise awareness of harmful algae.
The algal blooms are primarily caused by agricultural fertilizers high in nitrogen and phosphorus, which wash from farmland into the tea-like warm waters of lakes, where the nutrients feed cyanobacteria. Runoff from septic systems and lawn care also contributes.
Greg Boyer, a professor emeritus at the State University of New York’s School of Environmental Science and Forestry, said scientists don’t fully understand the causes and frequency of algae blooms, but they do know that warmer water is the key. And, thanks to human-induced climate change, Cayuga Lake is warming.
Algal blooms are a natural phenomenon that occurs in all 50 states and around the world. Contrary to their appearance, many of these flowers are completely harmless, but certain species of algae can be poisonous. Even non-toxic algae can cause oxygen-depleted “dead zones” in water bodies, killing or displacing aquatic life.
Last summer, parts of Cayuga Lake, usually crowded with swimmers and kayakers, bloomed in record amounts, filling the water with clouds of green algae. The state warned that the water was unsafe. One sign reads, “Harmful algae blooms have been observed in this body of water. Algae blooms can make you and your pets sick.”
Scientists and government officials are working together to understand the triggers of bloom outbreaks and their impact on public health and local environments, and to develop strategies to prevent or stop future outbreaks.
The Community Science Institute, a nonprofit organization that monitors water quality throughout the Finger Lakes region, received a record 284 reports of harmful algae blooms (not individual blooms) last summer from Jody and Griffith and other volunteers who conduct weekly shoreline surveys and collect samples to test toxic levels of blooms.
Volunteers collect water samples. Photo by Alyssa Johnson
The monitoring program began in 2018 after a spike in blooms at Cayuga Lake and 10 other lakes in the region the previous year.
These once rare flowers have been reported in Cayuga Lake for 13 years. Last year, all 34 samples collected by CSI volunteers contained the toxin microcystin. Of these, 88% exceeded New York State Department of Health safe exposure levels for the toxin in both drinking water and recreational exposure.
“Not all lakes are blooming like they were in 2017, but what we’re seeing now is that some lakes are so degraded that they’re really blooming, while others aren’t,” said Boyer, who has spent 40 years studying the phenomenon.
Before 2000, harmful algal blooms were not considered a problem in New York state, he said, adding that all changed in 2017 when all 11 Finger Lakes had harmful algal blooms.
Bloom reporting and sampling presents challenges due to the rapidly forming and dispersing nature of blooms. Depending on the bacteria, the flowers vary in color (although in Cayuga Lake they are usually bright green or blue-green due to cyanobacteria) and textures, so it can be difficult to tell where the flowers begin and end.
“Many of us, myself included, outline blooms by what we see,” says Alyssa Johnson, CSI’s surveillance program coordinator and lifelong Finger Lakes resident. “But that’s only if we’re looking at trillions of cyanobacterial cells at a time. So if there’s less than that, you can’t see it with the naked eye, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there and it doesn’t mean it’s not producing toxins.”
From 2018 to 2024, CSI volunteers collected as many samples as possible from suspected bloom sites in Cayuga Lake. But over time, the ever-increasing number of bloom reports and the resulting increase in samples became logistically unmanageable, Johnson said.
Data collected each year showed that bloom outbreaks occurred more frequently in certain parts of the lake. So last year, instead of continuing to sample the lake more broadly, volunteers focused on collecting samples from 14 “priority sites” identified by county health departments around the lake, which yielded little new insight. Johnson says this approach allows for more strategic, efficient and continuous monitoring of high-risk areas. More priority sites have been added this year.
Once the samples are collected, they are returned to CSI’s state-certified laboratory and tested for microcystin, which is produced by blooms and is one of several cyanotoxins commonly found in lakes.
“We’re not going to bloom every single flower that exists in the lake,” Johnson said. “It’s not realistic, but we want to collect as much data as humanly possible.”
To do that more effectively, CSI is working with New York State Representative Anna Keres and Senator Rachel May, who is introducing legislation to create a central resource for reporting and addressing harmful algae in 2024. Similar to CSI, there are currently various volunteer programs in place across the state that monitor blooms and report them to state environmental regulators.
The idyllic image of Cayuga Lake was clouded by flowers. For most of last summer, the lake was an electric green color. Some residents acknowledged that’s bad for business in a region that relies heavily on waterways for tourism.
“Tourism, the economy, the environmental impact, agriculture, all of that is affected and wrapped up in this issue,” Johnson said.
For some, modern horror reflects the writings of one of the region’s most famous residents.
Cayuga Lake is where Rod Serling, creator and organizer of, lived. twilight zone The television series “allowed him to escape the turmoil and pain of Los Angeles, a place where he was slow,” his daughter Anne Serling wrote in her memoir. The man I knew: My father, Rod Serling.
Rod Serling and his family returned to their vacation home on the west shore of the lake every summer. But even after they left, his thoughts would return to the lake and he would be there in spirit. His production company was called Cayuga Productions.
“Every generation has loved this cottage,” says Anne Serling. Anne Serling’s family still owns and visits this cottage. “There’s a draw that I can’t really put into words, but I definitely miss it when I’m not here.”
Serling’s villa. Photo by Anne Serling.
This cottage is where Rod Serling and his wife honeymooned. It was there that Anne Serling first saw herself as a child. twilight zone Episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”.
“I knew my dad was a writer, but I didn’t know exactly what he was writing. Then I saw an episode with him and it really scared me,” says Anne Serling. “He didn’t write it, Richard Matheson wrote it, but in a way I watched it from my dad on TV and thought, ‘Oh my god, this is what you do.'”
A few years later, she was married on the balcony of the cottage. Today, it is where his grandchildren and great-grandchildren spend their summers.
Jody Price can relate. Her family has farmed on Cayuga Lake for generations, and she spent much of her time there as a child, where she heard stories about Rod Serling from adults. Later, when she moved into a new villa, people passing by said she often had coffee with him.
“I always regret not meeting him because I wanted to share his love for the lake,” she says.
The lake’s current fate is a story as strange as Serling’s famous show, altered by climate change and pollution.
But Price, whose dream of returning to Cayuga Lake came true when she and her husband bought a cottage in 2012, is trying to do everything she can to protect this unique waterway.
It may have been their seventh summer back at Cayuga Lake. One night, they were sitting on the dock with friends who lived nearby and talking about the harmful algae that was ravaging the water.
“We were all pretty depressed,” Jody recalls. “It was one of those perfectly calm, beautiful nights with the sun going down. And (my friend) looked outside and she said, ‘Are we looking at a dead lake?’ And I said, ‘We’re going to fight like hell not to be a dead lake.’ I said: “I would never dream of coming back here and finding this place covered in algae. ”
Johnson says community volunteers who participate in CSI and other monitoring programs play an important role in helping government scientists track and manage water quality. There is a lot of water to cover, too much for a single agency. Volunteers help fill the gap by collecting the data needed to understand the behavior and impacts of harmful algae.
“We are all so connected to lakes and water,” she says. “I don’t think any of us are going to leave, but I think it would be a pretty heartbreaking situation if things got worse.”
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