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Floating weeds clog waterways

But the state doesn't want counties to use funds targeted for invasive water weeds like hydrilla to clear tussocks from the chain of lakes.

Tussocks that clog local waterways are bothering state Rep. Charles Dean, and he intends to do something about them.

Dean on Thursday formally requested state funding to get rid of the tussocks, which are floating islands of weeds and vegetation.

Tussocks are a big concern on the Tsala Apopka lake chain. County Commissioner Josh Wooten recently led a boat tour of some problem areas along the Hernando Pool of the lake chain.

But Dean, during a House subcommittee meeting Thursday, noted that the tussock problem reaches statewide.

"These tussocks are disrupting the natural flow that our environment has depended on for years," Dean told the House Subcommittee on Agriculture and Environment Appropriations, according to a news release from his office.

Dean, an Inverness Republican, is a member of that subcommittee.

Dean also has asked representatives from two state agencies - the Department of Environmental Protection and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - to visit Citrus County to get a first-hand look at the problem.

DEP previously has said it doesn't want Citrus County government to spend state money set aside for management of invasive plants to get rid of tussocks.

The department has allocated $1.4-million for the county to combat hydrilla and other aquatic weeds.

However, the agency considers the tussocks to be a lake restoration issue, not an invasive plant problem.