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Hernando Today

'Spring' Break

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By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

Published: December 14, 2007

Updated: 12/13/2007 09:11 pm

WEEKI WACHEE - The mermaids will be soon be swimming in a lot less motor oil.

Crews are putting the finishing touches on a project to divert the flood of stormwater that flows into the park and the Weekiwachee River springhead from the attraction's vast parking lot and from U.S. 19.

For years, that water - full of debris and pollutants - has rushed virtually unchecked off the busy highway and the expanse of asphalt south of the 60-year-old attraction.

Some of the water would flow straight into the spring. Some would create a pond in the corner of the parking lot near the park entrance, and much of that water would also wind up in the spring.

Now that a project by the Southwest Florida Water Management District is nearly complete, most of the stormwater will flow into a roughly three-quarter-acre retention pond just south of the parking lot.

"It's a historical place that just needed some upgrades environmentally," said Scott Letasi, staff engineer for the water district known as Swiftmud, as he gave a tour of the work on Thursday.

Crews installed a dozen stormwater drains throughout the roughly five-acre parking lot.

The project also included the addition of a smaller retention area between the spring and U.S. 19.

The untreated water, which carries gasoline, motor oil, fertilizer, litter and silt, has long been identified as a culprit in degraded water quality in the spring and river, Letasi said. Algae and aquatic weeds feed off nutrients in the water such as phosphorous and nitrogen.

The district came up with the plan in 2002. A lack of bids from contractors the first time around and a desire to work around the attraction's peak attendance months delayed the project about a year.

The district paid HB Industries Inc., of Crystal River just more than $361,000 for the work, which is wrapping up a little ahead of schedule, Letasi said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will reimburse the district an estimated $193,000 when the job is complete.

"This has been an important project for us," said Weeki Wachee Springs spokesman John Athanason.
Swiftmud owns the 27-acres on which the attraction sits and is now in mediation to resolve disputes over the Weeki Wachee Springs lease.

Athanason praised the efforts of the district and Letasi specifically to accommodate the attraction and keep management informed.

It's an example of how the two sides can work together, he said.

"As I've said all along, Swiftmud and Weeki Wachee (Springs) share the same goal, and that's the protection of the spring," he said.

Now that less polluted water is flowing into the spring, the Swiftmud turns to the next phase: removing the Lyngbya algae, muck and other invasive plants that have collected in the springhead over the years.

Contractors will use hand vacuums to up the muck and plants and pipe it to district-owned scrubland on the other side of County Road 550, said Denise Tenuto, project manager in the district's environmental section. Then workers will replant native vegetation.

Crews also will remove muck in a narrow area beyond Buccaneer Bay to improve river flow and water quality in that area, Tenuto said.

That project is expected to begin after Labor Day to accommodate the park and the manatees that have yet to migrate toward the spring at that time of year, said.

The district has budgeted just more than $583,000 for that phase with the hopes that bids will come in well under that. For Letasi, seeing his portion through to completion has a dose of poignancy.

Letasi, who has worked for Swiftmud since 2005, was raised in Pasco County and recalls jumping into Buccaneer Bay as a child. Now he lives in Ridge Manor.

"It's kind of nice," he said, "when you have a project in your hometown and you can take some pride in it."

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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