Lake lovers' hopes rise at last

[Times photo: Fraser Hale] "These are docks that used to have water under them," says Helen Wehle, who has banded together with other Lake Church homeowners to restore definition of "lakefront property." Swiftmud is taking action, under pressure, to restore northwestern lakes.

By JOSH ZIMMER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 23, 2002

KEYSTONE -- A popular anecdote among Lake Church homeowners involves a little dog. It seems the water level dropped so low this spring that a dachshund managed to cross from one side to the other.

Residents don't tell the story for laughs. It is meant to highlight their frustration with their inability to boat, fish and swim as they used to.

Several months ago they began sharing this burning sentiment, en masse, with the area's water authorities -- Tampa Bay Water and the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Decades of pumping from the Cosme-Odessa well field, compounded by an extended drought barely eased by summer rains, have left Lake Church a shadow of its former self.

"These are docks that used to have water under them," said Helen Wehle, viewing the aggravating scene from her back yard. "I haven't (water) skied for two years."

Lake Church sits in the bottom end of northwest Hillsborough County's lake country, and the abundance of well fields made it a major participant in the so-called Water Wars of the 1980s and 1990s. Pinellas County drew water from the area for decades. Swiftmud has since admitted that the well fields were overpumped, to the detriment of the Floridan Aquifer and the lakes that sit above it.

Now the district is helping to oversee an ambitious water resources plan involving conservation and alternative sources, such as desalination. Water officials say the effort will determine the health of local lakes for years to come. The plan is supposed to reduce water use in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties by 37-million gallons a day next year and an additional 31-million gallons day by 2008.

The effects may not be visible right away. Low lake levels remain an ongoing problem across the northwest, not just Lake Church. Passions still run high among people like Wehle and her neighbors, who resent not being able to use their highly taxed properties.

"This is the worst it's ever been," said Eileen Hart, a longtime resident of Lake Juanita, just north of Lake Church. She and seven others were so outspoken that the Pinellas County Commission sued the group to forestall a threatened class-action lawsuit over property damage from overpumping. Pinellas eventually spent $550,000 in taxpayer money to settle with the defendants, not including its own legal bill.

But waterfront property owners along Lake Church are getting some satisfaction.

The district recently agreed to fund a temporary pipeline that would divert excess water from Lake Pretty to Lake Church.

Whether it's used or not will depend on the strength of this year's rainy season and the amount of rainfall dropped by the upcoming El Nino, a disruption in the normal weather pattern across the Pacific Ocean that leads to heavier than average rainfall. The pipeline should be in place by early September, said Gary Kuhl, the district's director of operations.

Lakefront property owners also are banding together for a permit application that would allow them to pump groundwater into the lake, already a practice in some nearby lakes.

Homeowners are mobilizing as never before. Of the 51 property owners on Lake Church, more than 30 have shown interest in a new association of lakefront residents, Wehle said. The money will pay a consultant to help with the application. The permit may only would be used in case the pipeline isn't.

"We just want to get to what our lake levels should be," she said.

Predictions are modest

Lake Church residents came to Tampa Bay Water and Swiftmud with the advantage of experience. During the El Nino rains in 1997 and '98, the district installed a nearly identical set of above-ground pipes and pumps to ship water from Lake Pretty to Lake Rogers.

The project raised water levels by 10 feet to 39 feet, but never was extended to Lake Church, said Scott Emery, a water consultant to Hillsborough County who helped lake residents prepare their request to the district.

The current plan would divert water through Horse Lake, Lake Raleigh and Lake Rogers before channeling it further west to Wehle and her neighbors.

Swiftmud officials were to met this week with the county's Environmental Protection Commission to discuss a specific path. One or two landowners still haven't agreed to let the the pipeline pass through their properties, he said.

Predictions about the effect of piping in water are relatively modest.

The current level is about 29 feet, after weeks of solid rainfall, well below the lake's minimum management level of 34 feet, Emery said. How much Lake Church benefits from the pipeline will depend on the amount of rain dropped by El Nino, he said.

Kuhl emphasized that the pipeline will only be used after near-flood conditions are met and would not take water away from Lake Pretty.

A Swiftmud priority

Manipulation of the lakes has been a fact of life here ever since people began moving in to establish farms and, later, large-tract homes and subdivisions. The area is replete with canals and water control structures designed for flood control and maintaining lake levels, said Mike Hancock, a senior Swiftmud engineer who oversees the area's water resource program.

Swiftmud's own water recovery plan, created by state statute, seeks to preserve lake aesthetics and recreational possibilities. That, combined with a legislative mandate to set minimum lake levels, puts pressure on Swiftmud to find projects that will keep more water within the lakes. Maintaining water levels "is a priority for the northern Tampa Bay area and something we spend a lot of time on," he said.

One project inching closer to reality is a structure at Lake Armistead designed to rein in the water before it all flows out to Rocky Creek. Plans, which also involve maintaining water flow on Rocky Creek, should be ready by the end of the year, Kuhl said.

Groundwater pumping -- a practice that has been occurring for years in certain lakes to maintain water levels -- is getting more attention as well. In a contract with Swiftmud, the U.S. Geological Survey recently finished a study of three local lakes. One, Round Lake, has been augmented for 30 years.

Researchers compared Round Lake with Dosson and Half Moon lakes, which haven't received added groundwater. The study raised doubts about the long-term effectiveness of the practice.

Compared with the nonaugmented lakes, Round Lake changed, the study found. Adding groundwater altered the mineral content, leading to changes in plant and animal life, including snails not normally found in local lakes.

Perhaps the most important finding was that sinkhole activity is higher around Round Lake. Researchers were also surprised to find elevated levels of radium 226 in the lake bottom. Radium, with a half-life of 1,600 years, decays into radon, which can cause cancer, and lead, which triggers neurological problems.

Part of the problem lies with Round Lake itself, said study co-author Patricia Metz. Its thin confining layer allowed significant leakage into the aquifer.

Swiftmud, desperate for new water sources, is awaiting the results of a follow-up study that will assess the best ways to augment lakes, such as how much water to pump and where.

The best candidates, Metz said, are those that are far away from well fields, and with thick confining layers.

"Round Lake was certainly the worst case scenario lake," she said. "The radium 226 was a real surprise to everybody. We're here in the moment. But hundreds of years of putting water unnaturally in the system is going to cause problems."

Yet another study -- this one slated for the Lake Park well fields at Van Dyke Road and N Dale Mabry Highway -- would assess the effectiveness of replenishing wetlands with reclaimed water and stormwater, Hancock said.

Band-Aid approach?

None of those measures matter in the long run if the area's groundwater plan fails. Local lakes face a dire future unless water is restored to the aquifer.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman, who put Lake Church residents in touch with Emery, the consultant, called the Rocky Creek diversion "a workable project." But, he added, "I see this as a Band-Aid approach until the calavry comes."

Meanwhile, Patricia Alterio wonders when she and her husband will be able to use their dock, a covered structure they spent more than $10,000 building after they purchased the property in 1996. Six years ago, the lake was flush with water. They looked forward to relaxing boat rides in the sunset.

"We've never been able to get the boat in," she said. "We bought a canoe."

She feels empowered by the neighborhood's effort to make the lake more livable. Wehle is asking homeowners to contribute $250 apiece. Alterio said she plans to send her share soon.

"I'm behind it 100 percent," she said.

-- Information from Times files was used in this report. Josh Zimmer covers Keystone, Citrus Park and the environment. He can be reached at 269-5314.

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