AquaDiary: Water Mysteries, Science & News

A power plant on Seneca Lake in Dresden, NY is permitted to pull up to 139 million gallons of water out of the lake every day. It used to burn coal, then it mined Bitcoin. Now its owner, Vulcan Infrastructure and Power (formerly Greenidge), wants to turn it into an AI data center. Does that change what goes into Seneca Lake, and what comes back out? I read the plant’s state water permit, so you don’t have to. Here’s what’s documented, what’s claimed, and what nobody knows yet. In the video, I tell you which claims come from the company, which come from advocacy groups, and which come from government documents. Those aren’t the same thing, and I try to be fair to all three

IN THIS EPISODE

• What the plant’s water permit actually allows, in plain English
• How once-through cooling works, and why heat matters
• Heat, algae, and what the science does and doesn’t show
• The thermal study, the fish screens, and the missing data
• The AI plan, who has approved what, and who hasn’t
• Three water questions nobody has answered yet

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Report a suspected algal bloom to NYS DEC
• Ask DEC whether any notice or permit application has been filed for the AI conversion

CORRECTIONS

If I got a number wrong, tell me in the comments. I’ll correct it and pin the fix.

ABOUT AQUADIARY

AquaDiary is a water research channel and podcast. New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe, and consider becoming a YouTube member.

More at aquadiary.org

In 1804, a newspaper claimed two fishermen shot and killed a 100-foot serpent in Cayuga Lake. Over 200 years later, the city of Ithaca has an official resolution protecting it. In this episode, I team up with Kenny Biddle, Chief Investigator at the Center for Inquiry, to dig through the old newspaper trail, measure the monster, and talk to the people keeping the legend alive.

Along the way, we talk to Sylvie, creator of the Old Greeny Fringe Fest; Pat Sewell, the alder behind the resolution; and Ben Sandburg, executive director of the History Center in Tompkins County. Plus, there’s a pattern in the sighting dates that says Old Greeny is “due to return,” and I explain why that math should make you suspicious.

I’m Ally, an environmental scientist who manages lakes for a living, and this is AquaDiary: lake science, legends, and mysteries.

GUESTS

• Kenny Biddle, Center for Inquiry: https://skepticalinquirer.org/category/a-closer-look/
• Sylvie, Old Greeny Fringe Fest: https://oldgreenyfringefest.com/
• Pat Sewell, Ithaca Common Council, Third Ward
• Ben Sandburg, Tompkins County History Center: https://www.thehistorycenter.net/

SUPPORT THE LAKE MONSTERS“Save Our Lake Monsters” shirts are available at aquadiary.org

There's a river in the sky carrying up to 15x the flow of the Mississippi River. You've heard the term atmospheric river in the news — this episode is the explanation nobody gave you.

In this episode, environmental scientist Ally breaks down what atmospheric rivers actually are, how scientists measure and rate them on a scale from beneficial to catastrophic, why the West Coast depends on them for its water supply while also being devastated by them, what El Nino might change about that in 2026, and why the East Coast, the South, and the Midwest are not off the hook.

Topics covered: what an atmospheric river is, integrated vapor transport, orographic lift, the AR1-AR5 rating scale, the ARkStorm scenario, Oroville Dam, forecast informed reservoir operations, El Niño and what a very strong event means for this winter, and what climate change is doing to these systems.

The full source list is available for free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheAquaDiaryPodcast//About AquaDiary:AquaDiary is a science communication project focused on water, environmental science, and the systems that shape our world. You can reach Ally for collaborations at www.aquadiary.org or at aquadiary.podcast@gmail.com

How does a mountain collapse cause a flood when there is almost no rain?In August 2026, a rock-and-ice avalanche collapsed from the northern face of Langtang Lirung in Nepal, sending an enormous volume of material down the Himalayan valley and generating a seismic signal equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. In this episode, we examine the glaciology, geology, hydrology, and remote-sensing evidence behind the event, including how hanging glaciers and fractured bedrock fail.

Sources:

• 34 sources are available for free on ⁠Patreon ⁠
• Official website: www.aquadiary.org

Support verified relief efforts:

• https://www.nrnusa.org/
• https://allhandsandhearts.org/our-work/programs/nepal-flood-relief

NOTE: This video is for educational purposes. Where the evidence is still developing, we distinguish between established observations, scientific hypotheses, professional opinions, and open questions researchers are still investigating.

About AquaDiary:AquaDiary is a science communication project focused on water, environmental science, and the systems that shape our world.

You can reach Ally for collaborations at aquadiary.podcast@gmail.com

What happens when algae show up in the water that eventually becomes your drinking water?In this episode of AquaDiary, we go behind the scenes again with Rochester, NY to find out how the city monitors for algae, where and how they collect samples, what they're looking for in those samples, and how they ensure algae toxins never become a drinking water concern.

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Fluoride is under a federal microscope right now. RFK Jr. told the CDC to drop its fluoridation recommendation, Utah already banned it, and the EPA fast-tracked a new toxicity review. So, is your tap water lowering your IQ?

I spent a while reading the actual primary sources both sides cite so you don't have to.

Short version: the studies finding an IQ effect are real and well-designed. So are the studies finding none. They're mostly answering different questions. Dose and timing turn out to matter more than "fluoride: yes or no." I walk through where the evidence actually lines up, and where the genuine open question still is.//

• Full citations and in-text citations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheAquaDiaryPodcast
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• Learn more at aquadiary.org

Radioactive material has been found in the yards of over 120 homes in the Town of Niagara, NY, and four families have been relocated. But is this just a soil problem, or could it reach the water too?In this episode, I break down what's actually been found, why officials reportedly knew about radioactive hotspots in this area for nearly 40 years, and what the peer-reviewed science says about whether thorium contamination can migrate into groundwater.

Questions this episode answers:

• What is happening in Niagara County, NY right now
• How does soil radiation impact water supplies?
• What is "slag" and why is it radioactive?

• Is Niagara County linked to the Manhattan Project?
• Why did officials know about this for 40 years?
• What are agencies doing about Niagara County's radiation?

Sources & further reading:

This episode cites 22 sources.

• Full source list free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheAquaDiaryPodcastFull script with in-text citations available to $3/mo members

Get involved:

• Local advocacy: Save Our Backyards Niagara
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Work with me:

Municipality, lake association, or organization needing help communicating a science or environmental issue clearly? Want me to speak at your next event?

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📍 Town of Niagara, NY | Niagara County, NY

There's a beach on one of the cleanest lakes in America with foam sitting on the shoreline, and it just tested over 70x higher for PFAS than the lake water two feet away.

In this episode I sit down with Rick Smith of Global Aquatic Research to unpack what's actually happening across the Finger Lakes right now: the PFAS-in-foam research out of Canandaigua Lake and what it means as the project expands, why harmful algal blooms are starting earlier and lasting longer, and what we know about lake foam. This one got more unsettling than I expected, in the best way.

🔬 Guest: Rick Smith, Founder, Global Aquatic Research📍 Filmed in Auburn, NY - thank you to ARMA for the equipment and assistance.

NOTE: This episode's interview segment was shot on a greenscreen. The background used behind Rick and me was purchased (and made custom) from an online marketplace and found to be AI-generated. I didn't know at the time of editing. I'll be vetting background sources more carefully going forward. All audio and footage of us is raw from the interview and unaltered.// Links:

• Follow Rick's Research: globalaquaticresearch.com
• Get Involved! - Introducing the Finger Lakes Foam Reporting Tool: https://www.globalaquaticresearch.com/finger-lakes.html
• NYSDEC HABs map & reporting: https://dec.ny.gov/environmental-protection/water/water-quality/harmful-algal-blooms/notifications
• Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheAquaDiaryPodcast
• Substack (free water quality guides): https://substack.com/@aquadiarypodcast
• Inquiries: aquadiary.podcast@gmail.com
• www.aquadiary.org

Rochester, New York has been voted the best-tasting water in New York State twice. In this episode, I go inside the Hemlock Filtration Plant with the Rochester Water Bureau, for a complete walkthrough of how drinking water treatment actually works.

This is the most in-depth water treatment plant tour I've filmed on this show. We walk through the entire process step by step, including pH Adjustment, coagulation, filtration, disinfection, corrosion control, and fluoridation.

Beyond the treatment steps themselves, we see what it actually takes to run a plant like this day to day: how backwash filtering works to keep the filters clean and operating efficiently, how chemical storage and chemical feed systems are managed and maintained, and how the Water Bureau is approaching aging infrastructure, including an old tugboat generator still in use, for which replacement control parts can only be found on eBay.

We also get into how tap water testing compares to bottled water regulation, and why your annual water quality report is one of the most underused resources for understanding what's actually in your water.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Bottled Water Scam: https://youtu.be/8t2hWfc-GfI?si=4L4Y5h6kXMPjlUfX
• Rochester Water Bureau on Lead Pipes: https://youtu.be/1ScftnN7g8s?si=QTJINwVLeM4vmDJr

About AquaDiary:

AquaDiary is an independent media project covering water quality, lake science, and the infrastructure most people never think about until something goes wrong. New episodes weekly.

Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheAquaDiaryPodcast

Substack (free water quality guides): https://substack.com/@aquadiarypodcast

Thanks to David Rowley and the Rochester Water Bureau for the access and the time.

In 2023, Canada's wildfires turned the sky over New York the color of a traffic cone. In July 2026, it's happening again.

Everyone covers the smoke in our lungs. Almost nobody covers what that same smoke does to our drinking water and lakes. This episode traces the whole chain: the light-blocking, algae-fertilizing double effect of ash on a lake surface, the "lake that turns to tea" carbon browning problem, the neurotoxin that works its way up the food chain into the fish on your plate, and what all of it means for the water coming out of your tap.

I also talked to a silvicultural forester with the U.S. Forest Service (speaking personally, not for the agency) about the century of fire suppression policy sitting underneath all of this, and about a genuinely strange soil chemistry mechanism that turns a burned hillside into a mudslide waiting to happen.

And yes, we go there on the oil and gas question: how much of this traces back to Alberta's oil sands, what the actual peer-reviewed attribution science says, and where that research runs out.If 2023 felt like a freak year, 2026 is making a strong case that this is just what North American summers look like now. For us, and for our lakes.//

AquaDiary is an independent water science and investigative podcast that aims to teach people about water resources

• 🎙️ All sources cited on Patreon, full scripts for $3/mo - patreon.com/c/TheAquaDiaryPodcast
• 📌 YOUTUBE MEMBERS — early access and monthly live Q&A
• 🧪 NEWSLETTER – Free PDF on how to read your annual drinking water report [https://substack.com/@aquadiarypodcast]
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• New Website!

Rochester, NY has thousands of lead water service lines and a plan to replace all of them by 2030, years ahead of the federal deadline, at virtually cost to residents.How did they do it? And is the water in Rochester, NY safe to drink?In this episode, I go inside the Rochester Water Bureau's in-house lab to see exactly how lead testing works, down to the part-per-billion level. Then I sit down with the Director of the Water Bureau and the Manager of Water Production to talk about how Rochester's replacement program actually got built and what puzzle pieces are still moving. This is Part 1 of a Rochester, NY series where we will dig into where your water comes from, and how exactly it is managed.Thank you to the Rochester Water Bureau for the access and time that made this episode possible and for all the work you do for your customers.If you live in Rochester and would like your water sampled for lead, please email gettheleadout@cityofrochester.gov or call 585 866-9258.//🎙️ AquaDiary is water science for people who want to understand what's actually in their water.📌 SUBSCRIBE to support the channel🧪 PATREON: / theaquadiarypodcast 📩 FREE NEWSLETTER: https://substack.com/@aquadiarypodcast🌊 Inquiries: Send me a photo of your bloom, ask about your water, or invite me to speak at your next event: AquaDiary.Podcast@gmail.com.

Last week's reflecting pool video hit 400,000 views on YouTube.

The most common question in the comments: is there actually a fix for algae? Copper sulfate. Silver. Hydrogen peroxide. Ultrasound. Aeration.

I went through every tool, and gave you an honest verdict on each one.Is there a silver bullet for algae? What actually kills a harmful algal bloom? What are cyanobacteria toxins and how dangerous are they? How do you tell if a bloom is toxic just by looking at it? What do lake managers actually do differently?

I'm Ally, an environmental scientist. I manage lakes and algae professionally, and I'm giving you the honest version of what works, what doesn't. Full disclosure.

32 citations from EPA, NALMS, and peer-reviewed toxicology and limnology journals. Full reference list on Patreon.🎙️

AquaDiary is water science for people who want to understand what's actually in their water.

📌 FOLLOW for new episodes every week

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🌊 Inquiries: Send me a photo of your bloom, ask about your water, or invite me to speak at your next event: AquaDiary.Podcast@gmail.com.

Why did the Reflecting Pool get an algae bloom? Why did thepaint peel off? Is the Reflecting Pool safe? What killed the ducks? Why did the $16 million renovation fail?

I'm an environmental scientist and work professionally inlake and algae management, and this is my professional breakdown of what actually happened, why it was completely predictable, and what the science says about the decisions that were made, including the species identification thatmay have been inconclusive before workers poured chemicals into the water.

The pool has had algae since 1922. This is not a newproblem. It is a physics and biology problem that no renovation has ever solved, and this episode explains why.

• All sources cited on Patreon for $3 a month: patreon.com/c/TheAquaDiaryPodcast

🎙️ AquaDiary is water science for people who want to understand what's actually in their water.
📌 YOUTUBE MEMBERS — early access and monthly live Q&A
🧪 NEWSLETTER – free PDFS on how to read your water report or analysis [https://substack.com/@aquadiarypodcast]
📩 SPEAKING + CONSULTING inquiries: aquadiary.podcast@gmail.com

Microplastics have been found in 83% of tap water samples tested worldwide, and yes, that includes yours. But here's what almost no one covering this topic will actually say: as of 2026, peer-reviewed science does not yet have a definitive answer on what that means for your health. I'm an environmental scientist, and this episode gives you the honest version; the research, the real gaps, and the practical steps that are actually supported by evidence.

We cover what microplastics are and why different studies report wildly different numbers (the range between studies is 400,000-fold — and that tells you something important), what the newest human health research actually concludes versus what it's still working on, why bottled water is measurably worse than tap water for microplastic exposure, and which water filters have the independent certifications to back up their claims (including an honest breakdown of the one I personally use and exactly where its certifications do and don't hold up.)

No panic. No dismissal. Just the science, the uncertainty, and what's actually worth doing about it.

• Sign up for the email list to get free guides: https://substack.com/@aquadiarypodcast
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• In need of help? Email me at: aquadiary.podcast@gmail.com

Resources:

• NSF filter certification lookup (verify any filter's actual certifications): https://www.nsf.org/consumer-resources/water-quality

• EPA on microplastics: https://www.epa.gov/trash-free-waters/microplastics

Microplastic filter recommendations (affiliate):

• Countertop RO: https://amzn.to/3Qvlmsg
• Berkey: https://amzn.to/4oD8i0x
• Ultrafiltration: https://amzn.to/4eSbja8

Micron Technology is building the largest semiconductor fabrication complex in U.S. history in Clay, New York, and its wastewater will carry ( mostly unregulated) PFAS, the "forever chemicals," into a river system that connects to drinking water for half a million people. I'm an environmental scientist, and today we're doing the math the press releases aren't doing: what a $100 billion megafab and a projected 60% population boom in Onondaga County actually means for Central New York's water supply.

This episode covers PFAS in semiconductor wastewater (what the science actually shows, including a Cornell study that found 133 PFAS compounds in fab effluent), the demand math for 250,000 new residents on a drought-stressed water system, and the specific concern the Skaneateles Lake Association has formally raised about the region's most critical (and most vulnerable) drinking water source. Skaneateles Lake feeds 220,000 Central New Yorkers unfiltered. Its 18-year water retention time means that by the time a problem shows up in the water, the cause is years in the past. The planning window is now.

This is not a "stop Micron" episode. The jobs are real, the economic case is real, and this region has been waiting for a growth driver like this for decades. It's a planning story. And right now, the planning is not matching the scale of what's being built.

In 2014, a man in a small New York town did something almost no one does: he tested his own tap water. What he found, PFOA, a “forever chemical,” at hundreds of times the level regulators consider safe, would expose a national scandal and take roughly 18 months to be officially acknowledged. This is the story of Hoosick Falls, the frying-pan chemistry that poisoned a town’s drinking water, and why the same invisible contaminant may be sitting in your tap right now.

I’m Ally, an environmental scientist in the Finger Lakes region — and on AquaDiary I turn everyday people into the kind of person who can read a water-quality report and know when to actually worry. This episode breaks down PFAS and PFOA in plain language: what “forever chemicals” are, how they got into drinking water, what they do to the human body, how one ordinary resident (Michael Hickey) cracked the case before any agency did, and — most importantly — the concrete steps you can take to check and protect your own water at home.

If you’ve seen the movie Dark Waters, this is the same chemical. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a pattern. And once you can see it, you can’t unsee it.

Check your own water:

• EPA — Find your local Consumer Confidence Report (annual water quality report): https://www.epa.gov/ccr
• EPA — PFAS in drinking water (the federal limits & why): https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/drinking-water-regulations-pfas
• EPA — Drinking water lab certification (find a state-certified lab for private wells): https://www.epa.gov/dwlabcert/learn-about-laboratory-certification-drinking-water
• CDC / ATSDR — PFAS and your health, in plain language: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/
• NSF — Look up filters certified to reduce PFOA/PFOS (NSF/ANSI 53 & 58): https://www.nsf.org/consumer-resources/water-quality/water-filters

See the whole script and today's sources on Patreon:

A few weeks ago I was at a conference when someone from the City of Rochester's water bureau found me in person to ask for a follow-up deep dive into their water supply. On the drive home, I stopped in Saratoga Springs, and tried the water. I later learned that peer-reviewed science has found it contains radium isotopes and radon gas. The state tests the popular one. Not all of them. I want to solve that issue.

This general update episode covers where the show is going this summer, the Onondaga Lake investigation, and why I need your help to fund independent water testing in Saratoga Springs.

Please consider supporting the show on Patreon: The AquaDiary Podcast | Podcast for water science, news and mysteries. | Patreon

The scientists who worked on this cleanup all signed NDAs and wouldn't speak with me. And mercury is still being found.

In April 2026, routine marina renovations at Onondaga Lake uncovered mercury in sediment nobody had ever tested, in a lake declared cleaned up. The DEC says the origin is "unknown." The Onondaga Nation says they've been ignored for twenty years. And the experts who know the most about what's really in that lake cannot legally speak about it.

This episode covers the full contamination history of Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, NY, once designated as the most polluted lake in America. We dig into the Solvay Process Company's century of industrial dumping, 165,000 pounds of mercury discharged between 1946 and 1970, the mudboils in the Tully Valley still delivering salt and silt downstream through Onondaga Nation territory every single day, and the roster of companies — Honeywell, General Motors, National Grid, Crucible Specialty Metals, and others — that turned a sacred Haudenosaunee site (and the founding site of both the US and Haudenosaunee democracy) into a federal Superfund site.

We also explore what the Onondaga Nation has said from the beginning: that this cleanup was never enough, that their legal claim to their own homeland was dismissed on a technicality, and that the water their people have given thanks to for over a thousand years was declared clean without their agreement.

This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Next time, we will cover the cleanup, the eagles that came back, the fish that are still toxic, and the question with no clean answer: what does it mean to remediate a lake when the polluter gets to decide when it's done?

Further reading:Onondaga Nation land rights: onondaganation.orgRobin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (Milkweed Editions, 2013)Glenn Coin, Syracuse.com/NNY360, May 2026This episode had 28 citations. You can see them all by supporting the show on Patreon for $3 a month: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheAquaDiaryPodcast

21,800 tons of toxic chemical waste buried under a neighborhood and a school. Hundreds of families in Love Canal had no idea. This is the story of America's most infamous environmental disaster, and the woman whose anger created federal law.

Lois Gibbs was a 27-year-old housewife when she discovered her children were being poisoned by groundwater contamination seeping up through the soil beneath their home. State officials dismissed her community health survey as "useless housewife data." They told her to go home and tend her garden. She organized 90% of her neighborhood, held two EPA representatives hostage, and forced the creation of Superfund , the federal law under CERCLA that has since forced cleanup at over 1,300 hazardous waste sites across America.

As an environmental scientist and a woman, I'm telling this story the way it has never been told: through the water science and groundwater chemistry that made the contamination possible, the institutional misogyny that almost stopped the fight, and the fury of a mother who refused to leave her toxic neighborhood until every family was safe.

Rochester was voted the best-tasting municipal water in New York State. Then they found a body in the reservoir.

In March 2024, a maintenance worker discovered a man's body in Rochester's Highland Park Reservoir. It had been there for 24 days while water continued flowing to tens of thousands of taps. The water tested safe, but the story of how this was possible opens up something much larger about a city drinking from two of the most protected lakes in the country while simultaneously managing 15,000 lead pipes, two reservoirs out of federal compliance for nearly 20 years, and a chemical legacy in the watershed that took state environmental archives and a stonewalled FOIL request to piece together.

In this episode, environmental scientist Ally covers:

🔬 Where Rochester's water actually comes from — two glacier-carved Finger Lakes supplying 37 million gallons a day since 1876, with completely undeveloped shorelines and 6,800 acres of protected state forest.

☣️ The PCB scandal buried in the Canadice watershed. A private landowner draining transformer fluid into a tributary feeding your drinking water reservoir, and the fish test results still sitting in "draft form" two years after collection.

🚰 15,000 lead service lines still in the ground, what the city is doing about it, and how to get your water tested for free.

💀 The full story of Abdullahi Muya, the 29-year-old who drowned in Highland Park Reservoir in February 2024 and wasn't found for 24 days. and the federal compliance rule that's been deferred since 2006 that connects to the story.

🧫 The bloom science nobody in Rochester is talking about. Internal phosphorus loading documented in Hemlock and Canadice specifically, legacy septic systems still releasing nutrients 80 years after demolition, and the seiche dynamics that can trigger algal blooms from inside a protected lake with zero external input.

🧪 A University of Rochester study that found microplastic concentrations jumping from 10 particles per milliliter at the source to over 1,500 by the time it reached distribution. The source was clean, the pipes weren't.

💧 City water vs. suburb water, PFAS, disinfection byproducts, the Skaneateles comparison, the fracking fight nobody remembers, and what you can actually do

The water is safe. It's also complicated. This episode explains why.

Full citations at the AquaDiary Patreon (but comment if you want something): https://www.patreon.com/c/TheAquaDiaryPodcast

Free lead testing: WaterTest@CityofRochester.gov