Alachua County is working on making Newnans Lake habitable again — for wildlife and humans.
The county plans to filter water going into the lake, which has exceeded allowed levels of nitrogen and phosphorus causing algae growth and killing off some of the lake’s plants and animals, said Chris Bird, the director of Alachua County’s Environmental Protection department. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection classified the lake as impaired, Bird said.
“You wouldn’t want to swim in it either,” he said.
The county’s Environmental Protection department will start phase two of the Newnans Lake Improvement Initiative in March, Bird said. Using $250,000 in state-awarded funds, the department plans to install barriers to filter pollution in Little Hatchet Creek and Gum Root Swamp, which both feed into the lake. The man-made water sources were built in the 1980s and caused significant pollution.
“We’re really trying to go upstream and figure out the best way to place these engineered filters, because we want to prevent pollution from getting into the lake in the first place,” Bird said.
Phase one of the initiative, which began in July 2016 and cost $456,000, found the source of the pollution its severity, Bird said.
The county’s Environmental Protection department plans to propose a third and final phase in January that would cost $500,000. Bird said long-term restoration maintenance will cost millions of dollars and be supplemented by a fee on property taxes for Alachua County residents beginning in November.
“It’s going to take decades to clean up Newnans Lake,” he said. “The state is helping get this started, then it’s up to the county to maintain it.”
Mike Carter, the owner of Kate’s Fish Camp located on Newnans Lake, is eager to reopen his business in December after water conditions and flooding from Hurricane Irma caused him to close for repairs.
“We’ll be back. We live here. This is our home,” he said. “You cannot get to the heart of the problem Newnans Lake is facing without addressing the pollution.”
