Seneca Lake was carved out of bedrock over 10,000 years ago by glaciers, it is the deepest freshwater lake east of the Mississippi River outside of the Great Lakes. The lake’s shoreline is found within Seneca, Ontario, Yates and Schuyler Counties.
Fun Facts
38 miles long
3.2 miles at greatest width
1.9 miles wide on average
633 feet deep, at maximum
66.3 square miles or about 42,400 acres
4.2 Trillion gallons of water
75 miles of shoreline
11 municipalities rely on the lake for public water systems
100,000 people rely on Seneca Lake as their primary water source
What Science Tells Us About Seneca Lake
John Halfman, Ph.D., teaches in the Department of Geoscience and Environmental Studies Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY.
Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association is working to restore Seneca Lake to an environmentally healthy lake. Water quality is at the top of our priority list and we have developed and implemented three distinct water monitoring programs:
- Lake Monitoring – Citizen Science Lake Assessment Program – (CSLAP)
- Shoreline Monitoring – Harmful Agal Bloom identification and reporting.
- Stream Monitoring – to identify sources of pollution entering the lake.