Nestled among Central Florida’s many polluted lakes and other Waters Not Attaining Standards is Lake Ola, a lake generally considered “clean.” But these days, pollution is a growing concern, according to many who live on or around the 426-acre lake in northwest Orange County.
For four generations now, Garrett Potter’s family has called Lake Ola home. In all those years, the private-access lake has changed a lot, largely from wastewater discharges and increasingly more stormwater runoff from new subdivisions, Potter said.
“The lake has always been extremely pristine and clear. And we've noticed in the last decade or so that the water clarity and the degradation of the lake has gotten extremely bad,” Potter said.
There aren’t any public access points on Lake Ola, but the water body plays a role in the health of not just the Lake Apopka Watershed, but also Central Florida more broadly.
Florida waters are highly interconnected, with lakes frequently morphing into other lakes, rivers and back again. And because of the state’s high water table, the groundwater most Floridians depend on for drinking often rises up close to the surface, making it vulnerable to contamination. Lake water can seep down into groundwater through the lake bed; and conversely, groundwater can also seep up into lakes from down below.
The Florida Department of Health issued several rare algal bloom health alerts for Lake Ola in the last two years, warning of harmful toxins and urging people to stay out of the water. The last alert was on December 6.
“If ingested, water contaminated with toxic cyanobacteria can cause nausea, vomiting and, in severe cases, acute liver failure. Avoid swimming in or drinking water from these waters while blue-green algal blooms are present,” the alert read.
Many area residents insist the algal blooms are new for Lake Ola. But so is FDEP’s algal bloom reporting program, which only launched a few years ago, said Orange County Water Sciences Regulatory Compliance Coordinator Robert Renk.
“The reason that you're seeing more reports now is because there is a website where people, residents and government agencies … everybody can report if they see algae that looks like it's abnormal,” Renk told Lake Ola residents at a recent meeting.
Residents living on Lake Ola say they never want to see their beloved, spring-fed lake become “impaired” by pollution. But keeping Lake Ola clean could be a tall, expensive order, in part because water bodies already classified “impaired” are often prioritized for assistance.
Ken Marcks, one of about a hundred people who packed into the Tangerine Improvement Society on December 10 for a meeting about Lake Ola. He suggested another strategy for members of Orange County staff and the lake’s advisory board to consider.
“Let's stop [the pollution] before it becomes catastrophic,” Marcks said.
The three-hour-long discussion on December 10 focused largely on two things: how to confirm whether, and exactly where, excessive nutrients are getting into Lake Ola; and, how to stop as much pollution as possible from entering the lake to begin with.
To help answer the first question, earlier this year, Lake Ola homeowner Ned Bowers hired a pair of independent environmental consultants to complete an initial water sampling study. In March, John McKenna of Florida Permitting, Inc. and Kim Buchheit sampled eight different sites: mainly canals and ditches either already known, or strongly suspected, to channel water into Lake Ola.
Of the eight sites sampled in March, four were polluted enough to exceed state surface water quality standards, according to the new baseline study later replicated by Orange County environmental staff.
In the baseline study, the worst pollution came from two sample sites along a railroad track, just a few miles south from Lake Ola, where “extremely high” levels of chlorophyll a and nitrogen were recorded: sites 60 and 70. Those sites are also right near a sewer treatment and septic dumping facility, which recently received a warning letter from FDEP alleging several “possible violations” of Florida law. The letter mentions “evidence of potential pollutant discharges off-site,” plus a berm breach at a biosolids fertilizer storage area, among other things.
Although the baseline study yielded some valuable insight on the challenges facing Lake Ola, plenty of work still lies ahead, Buchheit and McKenna emphasized.
“This [study] is not exhaustive. We did our best to see what was coming from where,” Buchheit said. “We got it started, we handed it off; and then hopefully, it's going to have some impact where we can move forward and get better answers.”
For a more comprehensive understanding of Lake Ola’s water quality trends, more frequent, long-term monitoring would be necessary. That could be in store in Lake Ola’s near future, depending on which course the lake’s volunteer advisory board members choose to take.
Orange County Senior Environmental Specialist Marissa Herron recommended the board choose one of two options for an expansive lake management plan, to be produced by an outside firm. The estimated cost to put such a plan together ranges from $156,000 to nearly $400,000.
Advisory board member Kevin Harbin said he’s not sure contracting a firm to produce a comprehensive lake management plan would be worth the time and expense — especially at this point in the game, after two rounds of water quality sampling already each yielded some troubling findings about pollution in Lake Ola.
“As homeowners, we’re getting tired of getting buried in red tape,” Harbin said.
Alternatively, advisory board members could decide to forego both options the county is presenting from outside firms, and try to instead tackle Lake Ola’s challenges on their own: by testing the lake and contributing waters more regularly; and by investing in baffle boxes or other filtration devices for ditches and canals, to stop some pollutants from ever getting into the lake.
Harbin said the board is currently weighing all the options.
“I got a feeling the only way we’ll be able to do something is to look for solutions that we can purchase,” Harbin said. “I don't know that we have time to wait another ten years to fight for help.”
Bowers agreed, time is of the essence: “We're watching impairment in slow motion,” he said. “And we're trying to involve our government to be responsible, to keep these [waterbodies] from becoming … impaired. That's my fight.”
Recently, Orange County replicated the original baseline study funded by Bowers. But the second time around, it was all Lake Ola residents pitching in. The advisory board voted to fund that second study with up to $15,000, total, from the revenues collected through Lake Ola’s Municipal Service Taxing Unit, or MSTU.
Lake Ola is one of 39 Orange County lakes with either an MSTU or MSBU, or Municipal Service Benefit Unit. Both are self-imposed taxing districts, created to fund services or improvements within a specific, localized area, usually a residential subdivision.
MSBUs are funded by special assessments, or charges, set at fixed rates. MSTUs, like Lake Ola’s, are funded by ad valorem taxes, with each resident paying a specific amount based on their property’s assessed value.
Orange County does not have general tax funds allocated for aquatic plant or lake management, per the county.
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Ahead of the December 10 meeting, Bowers said he wasn’t sure if many people would come out to spend several hours advocating for Lake Ola. As it turned out, the room almost ran out of chairs that night.
“The turnout says everything,” Bowers said.
He, like Harbin and some other residents, are reluctant to simply do more tests. At this point, Bowers said, one fact is clear enough: Lake Ola isn’t as healthy as it used to be, and needs help now.
“But you take baby steps when you try to move a mountain like this,” Bowers said. “So, I'll take the baby steps.”
