Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Algae degrade Forest Hills lakes

The neighborhood wants the county to decontaminate the lakes of the scummy shores and strange-looking vegetation.

By AMBER MOBLEY
Published October 30, 2005

FOREST HILLS - When Noreast Lake turned green twice last year, neighbors knew something had to be wrong.

The spring-fed lake, one of about a half-dozen in the Forest Hills area, was clear until Hillsborough County linked it and nearby lakes to the stormwater system in August 2003 to prevent local flooding. Massive algae blooms engulfed Noreast Lake in March and September 2004.

Once the county sprayed algaecide, the water in Noreast Lake cleared up. But it hasn't stayed that way.

Scummy shores and strange-looking vegetation at that lake and others such as West and East Cedar Lakes have Forest Hills residents worried that the pollution has spread and more algae blooms are soon to come.

"When we see that, we think, "Oh my, it's starting,' " said Daisy Wilson, wife of North Forest Hills Neighborhood Association president Jim Wilson.

The neighborhood association wants the county to decontaminate the lakes.

Officials with the stormwater management department won't deny or admit fault for the algae blooms. But the county, Forest Hills residents and the University of Florida are collaborating to establish a lake management report in the next six months.

Still, Jim Wilson said, analyzing isn't action. He and his neighbors want the county to move faster.

"Studying the problem and studying the problem's not fixing the problem," Wilson said. "Nobody can tell me when they're going to fix the lakes and I've talked to everybody I can, trying to get some help."

The white stone Wilson installed to create a boat dock on the edge of East Cedar Lake that sits behind his house is now green, and algae grows thick enough for him to scoop it from the lake by the handfuls.

East Cedar Lake isn't the only lake experiencing changes in the water.

Slimy, dark green vegetation is growing on the shores of Lake Sophia.

Dorset Lake is covered in algae.

An algae bloom covered 80 percent of West Cedar Lake in November 2004, said Scott Walters who lives alongside it. He fears it'll happen again if something doesn't change.

The county installed stormwater pipes to stop flooding around two other bodies of water in Forest Hills - Lake Sophia and Round Pond, said Chin-Feng Ho, acting manager and senior professional engineer for the county's stormwater management section.

But, Wilson said, the county caused another problem: water full of fuel, fertilizer and fecal matter feeding the area's many spring-fed lakes.

Whether connecting the lakes to stormwater pipes caused the algae blooms is still undetermined, said Daniel E. Cantfield Jr., director of Florida Lakewatch at the University of Florida, a program that monitors 600 lakes across the state.

"(Noreast Lake) seems to have rebounded" since the algae blooms, Cantfield said.

In fact, the water quality in Forest Hills' lakes is classified as "good" according to the county's Watershed Atlas, which documents the area's bodies of water. But Cantfield said residents definitely have cause for concern.

"Don't diminish the importance of the algae blooms," Cantfield said. "We know that it happened. It's not just someone saying, "Oh, it's green.' "

"We're trying to find out why these two events occurred . . . they did come after the storm pipes were completely installed," Cantfield said.

In about six months Lakewatch will present its findings - a compilation of residents' concerns and environmental and engineering reports - to the county and homeowners.

"Right now what we're doing is going from meeting to meeting to meeting saying, "What's your point of view?' " said Cantfield.

The ultimate goal is creating a lake management plan that satisfies residential needs while sustaining environmental quality.

County Commissioner Brian Blair is another who blames the county's stormwater improvements for Forest Hills' lake water worries.

"Noreast Lake is a spring-fed lake," Blair said, "and they put a pipe in for a 100-year flood."

Blair plans to present the county's preliminary recommendations at the next North Forest Hills Neighborhood Association meeting on Nov. 8, at Lifespring Community Church, 914 W 131st Ave., at 7 p.m.

The county won't have any final recommendations until the University of Florida study is complete.

[Last modified October 30, 2005, 01:13:18]