David Riley

@rilzd

Nothing ruins a summer day at Ontario Beach Park like slimy, smelly, rotting algae.

The stringy, greenish organisms often collect on the beach, and along with bacteria cause frequent closures that keep would-be swimmers out of the water.

Monroe County broke ground on a project Tuesday that officials hope will curb the problem by collecting algae and pumping it to the other side of the long pier at the park. That's where the Genesee River empties into Lake Ontario, and the hope is that the river current will carry the algae out beyond the end of the pier, far away from swimming areas.

"We want to maintain the integrity of this as a destination, and to do that, we need to make sure it's accessible as often as possible," County Executive Maggie Brooks said Tuesday at a news conference beside the pier.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended the idea back in 2011. At the time, the county said it lacked the money to carry it out.

The county now has a $400,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Conservation for the job. Brooks credited the city of Rochester with helping to secure the money.

That sum will cover all but about $30,000 of the work and equipment, and the county plans to absorb the cost of running the new algae removal system in its annual parks budget, said David Rinaldo, deputy director of the Parks Department.

The county has contracted the construction firm C.P. Ward for the project.

Essentially, the company will build a discharge pipe into the pier, which is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Parks workers will use a new tractor equipped with a boom and skimmer to push algae from the swimming area up against the pier and into a suction intake. The algae will then be pumped or vacuumed through the pipe from one side of the pier to the other.

"There have been study after study after study done of the problem of algae here at Ontario Beach Park," Brooks said. "We know that this is a solution that will work."

The county only has had to close the beach for two days this summer, but shutdowns usually are more frequent, Brooks said.

"Our goal is to hopefully get that down to zero closures every year, but in the absence of that, certainly to reduce the number of closures for the public," she said.

The work is expected to take about four weeks. The pier and swimming areas are expected to remain open, but the county said it would notify the public at least two days in advance if any closings are needed.

Several beachgoers welcomed news of the project. As her 5-year-old daughter, Sarai, toweled off after a dip in the water, Jay Worth of Irondequoit said Tuesday was the first time they had visited the beach this summer. But they might come more often if there was less algae and fewer closings, she said.

"It sounds like a great idea," Worth said. "We would spend more time here."

Others were more skeptical. Deborah Nuciolo of Rochester questioned the future of the beach and public access to it amid the city's plans to develop the nearby Port of Rochester. A proposal from developer Edgewater Resources is not written in stone, but calls for a resort hotel and residential towers.

"When they put the condominiums in, it's not going to matter," Nuciolo said.

Asked how the county project factors into those plans, Brooks said the city has a chance to leverage the water as a resource, but that nice buildings or a marina would not be enough to make that happen.

"People want a certain quality in their environment," she said. "If they come down here and can't swim because the water's cloudy, if they come to this beach and it smells and they can't have a picnic and they can't bring their families here, we're really not doing a good job in making this a destination."

DRILEY@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/rilzd