As the toll of polluted lakes and rivers in Morison County is going up, two water bodies soon will be the latest to be added to the county’s rolls of polluted rivers, lakes and streams, Florida Department of Environmental Protection bureau chief Eric Livingston told county commissioners.
The list of polluted water bodies is the result of a state and federal initiative to examine every county’s rivers, lakes and streams; determine which are polluted; and determine how to clean them.
In the ongoing presentation, Livingston told commissioners that Lake Eaton, which is in the Ocala National Forest, and Daisy Creek, which empties into the Ocklawaha River, are troubled.
In Marion, high and fluctuating oxygen levels have been found in Lake Eaton, which suggests an unhealthy cycle of algae, bacterial growth and dying vegetation.
As for Daisy Creek, lead and cadmium discovered and the median level of lead in the creek was 0.81 ug/L (micrograms per liter). The median level of cadmium was 0.025 ug/L.
Pollution in the other lakes in the Orange Creek Basin Plan is phosphorus, typically from fertilizers, Marion County clean water engineer Mowry said.
Livingston was at the commission meeting to ask the county to sign on to the department’s Orange Creek Basin Management Action Plan, which spells out a series of projects to clean lakes and creeks in Alachua County and Orange Lake in northern Marion County. The commissioners unanimously agreed to participate in the plan.
But, the cleanup of the lakes, including Eaton Lake, will not be done overnight as their deterioration probably took 50 years, Livingston also mentioned.
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