- Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake are both currently at the Minor Flood Damage level of their Rule Curves.
- Keuka Lake is continuing to release a lot of water into Seneca Lake based on their high levels.
- Relevate, who manages the hydroelectric plants in Waterloo and Seneca Falls, is required by FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to release water through their gates to attempt to keep the Seneca Lake levels from rising any further.
- Cayuga Lake can’t slow their release any, because they’re already at flood levels, are managing the inflow from Seneca, and have to plan for any new rainfall.
To me, it feels like we’re not going to see significant relief for a while. It may go down slowly during these dry days, but there’s still a lot of water from all of the Finger Lakes that will be coming through Seneca River.
TO MONITOR CROSS LAKE LEVEL AND TRENDS:
CURRENT WATER LEVEL
To monitor Seneca Lake levels:
from the gages –
Seneca River Near Seneca Falls NY – USGS Water Data for the Nation
against the Rule Curve –
To monitor Cayuga Lake levels:
from the gages –
Cayuga Inlet (Cayuga Lake) at Ithaca NY – USGS Water Data for the Nation
against the Rule Curve –
THE RULE CURVES
The link for the rule curves can be found here:
https://www.canals.ny.gov/