Phosphorus loads entering Long Pond, a small embayment of Lake Ontario near Rochester, New York

Abstract

Introduction Long Pond is one of many small, shallow embayments along the southern edge of Lake Ontario (fig. 1). These embayments are an important recreational resource and wildlife habitat; thus, maintaining their natural state is essential to their continued use. In recent decades, Long Pond and the adjacent Cranberry Pond have become hypereutrophic (overly enriched with nutrients) (Makarewicz and others, 1990) as a result of nitrogen and phosphorus transported to those waters by Northrup Creek from sources within the drainage basin. In 1989, the Monroe County Department of Health and the Town of Greece, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), began a water-quality-monitoring program on Northrup Creek near North Greece at a site of a gaging station about 5 mi north (downstream) of the Village of Spencerport and the Spencerport wastewater-treatment plant. The program included the collection of water samples from October 1989 through September 1998 for chemical analysis and the collection of streamflow data for use in calculating phosphorus loads at the site. This fact sheet addresses the issue of concentration and loads of phosphorus in Northrup Creek, the principal tributary to Long Pond. Northrup Creek begins just south of the Village of Spencerport in Monroe County and flows northward into Long Pond. It drains a total of 23.5 mi2 in the towns of Ogden, Parma, and Greece (fig. 1). The drainage basin contains agricultural land, housing developments, and a small amount of urban land (table 1).