This page describes water quality and outreach efforts by Genesee RiverWatch, and its parent organization, the Center for Environmental (CEI), on the south coast of Lake Ontario and its tributaries outside the Genesee River basin.

Lake Ontario Coastal Initiative (LOCI)

CEI and its collaborators launched the Lake Ontario Coastal Initiative (LOCI) in 2002. Those involved with LOCI worked with Lake Ontario coastal communities, agencies and citizens to build greater public participation, individual responsibility and an understanding of how their communities contribute to water quality impairment and how to fix it.

Lake Ontario Tributaries Water Quality Studies

In addition to the LOCI studies, CEI collected water quality data in 2010 and 2011 on several tributaries to Lake Ontario including Maxwell Creek, Salmon Creek, Oak Orchard Creek, Shipbuilder Creek, Mill Creek and Braddock Bay.

Lake Ontario Forum

In 2014 CEI received funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to provide stakeholder outreach and citizen engagement, along with the development of a new website called the Lake Ontario Forum to house Lake Ontario water quality information, in order to increase the number and diversity of the stakeholders and citizens who know about the Lake Ontario Lakewide Action and Management Plan (LAMP). The combination of personal outreach and a new website was designed to help citizens of New York to appreciate the inherent value of this precious resource and encourage them to become stewards of the water while taking individual responsibility to improve it.

The Lake Ontario LAMP is a binational plan under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement directed at restoring and protecting Lake Ontario by reducing the amount of pollutants entering the lake and addressing chemical, biological and physical stressors impacting the lake. The LAMP guides activities of the participating US and Canadian federal, state and provincial government agencies and other partners.