LAKELAND — Lakeland is preparing to make cleaning the troubled waters of Lake Bonnet its major contribution to Bonnet Spring Park, a 160-acre, privately funded park announced early last year.
First, city officials said, they needed to know what they were working with.
"Our dream is, from the park, you could rent paddle boats and kayaks and have a great nature experience there," said Bill Tinsley, one of the principal organizers of the project alongside David Bunch and the Barnett family. "We're afraid to put people on the lake in its present condition."
Amec Foster Wheeler, a British engineering firm, will be paid $198,000 from the city's Lakes and Stormwater fees to assess the problems in the lake. State records indicate Bonnet, like several of Lakeland's lakes, contains too many nutrients, which can cause algae blooms.
Lakeland has five lakes that are currently failing to meet state standards and are part of a watch list that requires the city continually mitigate and prevent pollution levels: Crystal Lake, Lake Bonny, Lake Hollingsworth, Lake Hunter and Lake Parker.
Bonnet also fails some tests for water quality, specifically those for nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll-a and the amount of aquatic vegetation.
Before the city can apply for state and federal grants to assist in the cleanup — and to craft realistic goals for the lake — it must have the survey on hand, Lakes and Stormwater Manager Laurie Smith said.
The bigger cost will come later. When the city dredged muck from the bottom of Lake Hollingsworth from 1997 to 2001 it cost more than $10 million, and muck remained. Currently, filters along the shore collect stormwater runoff before it can enter the lake.
Tinsley, a former Lakeland parks director, and Bunch took a small boat out on the lake to measure the depth of sludge at the bottom.
"We found, pretty typically, it was 13 to 14 feet to hard bottom," Tinsley said, "but only two feet of water on top of suspended solids."
The cost to clean up the lake could be undertaken in part with state resources.
Since last year, the Bonnet Springs Park group has been meeting with city officials about the condition of the lake and whether it would negatively affect the park. The goal is to have the first phase of the park opened in 2020.
Last year, the city increased its stormwater fee on property owners for the first time in eight years, a delay that has made it difficult for the fee-funded stormwater division to take on large projects. From now on the fee will be assessed on an annual basis similar to the city's other utility services, City Manager Tony Delgado said.
Under questioning from commissioners, Smith said the project will not supersede other ongoing lake projects.
"With the establishment of Lake Bonnet Springs Park … staff felt after speaking with representatives from Lake Bonnet Springs that this was something that should be done," Delgado said.
The land was once a train yard and a wooded area known as the "Chinese Jungle" which until last year had been a popular encampment for homeless people. Its geography is notable for its steep elevation changes, which are expected to create dramatic areas, but also creates a drainage collector for the nearby developed areas.
The commissioned study will identify these drainage channels and future projects could filter the runoff. The city's staff expects the study to take about a year.
Christopher Guinn can be reached at Christopher.Guinn@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. Follow him on Twitter @CGuinnNews.