To see Chautauqua Lake included in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State book, a lengthy explanation that puts some meat on the broad themes in the speech, should be encouraging to county residents.

Area residents and the officials they elect to office have long decried a perceived lack of state investment in maintaining Chautauqua Lake. Gov. Andrew Cuomo had seemingly planned to make additional resources available as part of his 2018 State of the State focus on harmful algal blooms on the state’s lakes and waterways. The lake was studied, but little happened in terms of concrete action after Cuomo resigned.

Hochul’s plans are a little vague right now, though the State of the State appendix says the governor will direct the state Department of Environmental Conservation to work with state, federal and non-profit organizations to implement pollution reduction strategies, advanced water quality monitoring and complete a feasibility study to determine the extent and severity of internal phosphorus loading in Chautauqua Lake. At the same time Hochul wants to work on projects that reduce nutrients entering the lake, including streambed stabilization, weed buffers on the lake shore and rain gardens.

Here’s why the devil is in the details.

A lot of what Hochul says she will do has been the subject of state grants in the past several years to area organizations. Unless there is additional investment coming, little will change from what we see now.

The game changer, if there is one, will be help completing a feasibility study to determine the extent and severity of internal phosphorus loading in Chautauqua Lake. As we noted last week, the 2012 Total Maximum Daily Load for phosphorus in Chautauqua Lake identified internal phosphorus loading as responsible for about 25% of the phosphorus in the north basin of Chautauqua Lake and about 55% of the phosphorus in the south basin of Chautauqua Lake.

More needs to be done to keep phosphorus from entering Chautauqua Lake, but it doesn’t appear things will change in the south basin of the lake until internal phosphorus loading is dealt with. Helping with a study of possible solution is a good first step – but the real test of the state’s commitment will come when it’s time to pay for the study’s recommendations.