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Highlands Today

Lakes Targeted For Cleanup

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: October 27, 2008

If the state approves, Southwest Florida Water Management District is planning to spend $1.8 billion in the next two decades to clean up lakes in eight Central Florida counties.

In Highlands County, the $10 million Ridge Lakes Restoration Initiative is targeting lakes Isis, Tulane, June, Clay, McCoy, Verona, Anoka, Lotela, Angelo, Letta, Denton, Jackson, June and Placid.

"Lakes along the (Lake Wales) Ridge," said Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford, "are threatened by ... stormwater runoff, wastewater effluent, fertilizer applications, groundwater pollution, shoreline habitat degradation and hydrologic alterations."

Just as troubling are lower water levels along the Peace River, at lakes Jackson and Lotela, and along the Lake Wales Ridge.

Stormwater retrofit projects have been proposed or are underway at lakes Isis, Tulane, June, Clay and McCoy.

"What we're trying to do is stop stormwater from flowing directly into the lakes," said Ford. Stormwater picks up nutrients - leaves, grass, dirt, garbage, trace metals, asphalt, animal feces and urine. At high nutrient levels, algae blooms can take in oxygen, which cause fish to die.

What Ford hopes to stop is the first flush, the first 15 minutes of stormwater flow into lakes. If stormwater is held in grassy areas - swales - heavy materials will sink, and the water will sink into the sand. When the water rises to the top of the swale, large materials like cans and bottles are screened out by a skimmer.

"The ground does a tremendous job of cleaning the water," Ford said. Swales are ditches or depressions along the sides of roads or parking lots. "Most of the bad stuff is in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the stormwater flow. Swales do a tremendous amount of good. They weren't required when the highways were originally constructed."
Lake Istokpoga
At one time, Florida officials concerned about the restoration of the Everglades stopped considering any problems north of Lake Okeechobee, Ford said.

"They didn't see Istokpoga as anything but a water supply," Ford said. "We've changed all that. It's now seen as a habitat and a source of phosphorus for Okeechobee."

And an excess of phosphorus isn't a good thing. It comes from a variety of sources, but what runs into lakes are chemicals used in agriculture, Ford said.

The Corps of Engineers has put off projects - like the restoration of canals - to control flows into Istokpoga, Ford said.

"There is still a need for those projects north of the lake," Ford said. "If anything is going to happen, we're going to have to be beating our shoe on the table, saying, you really need to see these water storage features put in upstream... We were hoping five years ago that we would already have these things being installed.

"Part of it is that the funding is not there. Part of it is that ... I don't mean to speak ill of the Army Corps of Engineers, but they would like to have plans and keep studies and keep doing things over and over. How many years has it taken for them to finally start on this canal work that they've been talking about for years?"

Other SWFWMD projects include $30 for Facilitating Agriculture Management Systems, $30 million; restoring the upper Peace River watershed initiative, $890 million; the Central West Coast Surface Water Enhancement Initiative, $955 million.

If the initiatives are successful, Ford said, the result will be better water quality in lakes, which will provide better habitats for birds, fish and other aquatic life.

But, Ford reminds, the initiatives are really mandates. "As Highlands County gets bigger, we're going to fall under a new set of rules. We're going to have to clean up stormwater runoff. If we do this now, we can get the funding."

Because the county is small, there's money from SWFWMD and other parties. As the county gets bigger, Highlands County will have to pay for its own stormwater projects.

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828

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