Walton Sun:
Coastal Dune Lake garbage to be cleaned up
BY HEATHER CIVIL FLORIDA FREEDOM NEWS SERVICE
The once pristine natural view of Draper Lake behind Susan Lucas? house is tainted by garbage and debris deposited by Hurricane Ivan and Tropical Storm Arlene.
The shores of the coastal dune lake are littered with plastic soda bottles, food wrappers, a deflated inner tube, rusted metal, odd beach toys and countless piles of wood that used to make up dune walkovers.
Ever since Hurricane Ivan hit last September, Lucas and many of her neighbors have waited for the county to hire someone to clean up Draper Lake and several other coastal dune lakes with similar debris, Lucas said.
Now Arlene has added to the problem, she said.
?It?s polluting the lake,? Lucas said. ?I believe it?s dangerous and unsightly.?
After Ivan, the county hired Tarheel Specialties Inc. to remove debris at the lakes, but the company did not complete the job to the county?s satisfaction, said County Administrator Ronnie Bell. The county has not paid Tarheel for the work, he added.
Instead of waiting for a resolution with Tarheel, the county has decided to seek bids from other companies for the debris removal, Bell said.
That?s good news to Lucas, who says the problem has gone on far too long.
?The debris is just piled on the northern and western edges of the lake,? she said. ?Some of that wood has been treated with arsenic, which is leeching into the lake.?
Big Red Fish Lake and Little Red Fish Lake also suffer from an overload of trash and storm debris.
Richard Stein, who has owned property near Draper Lake for 10 years, fears those lakes and Draper Lake may also have been exposed to bacteria and septic tank debris after Arlene took out several septic systems in Gulf Trace.
The Walton County Health Department has declared the lakes and beaches safe, but Stein worries that the total impact of the septic problem on the lakes has yet to be seen.
?It?s awful,? he said.
The debris currently poses no serious health threat to those who fish or swim in the lakes, said Phillip Ellis, coastal dune lake program coordinator with the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance.
?The water quality is OK right now,? he said, though he added the longterm impact cannot be known. Draper Lake is one of 15 rare coastal dune lakes that occur almost exclusively in South Walton County, Ellis said. Coastal dune lakes have a mixture of fresh and brackish water. Barrier beaches and dune systems separate the lakes from the Gulf of Mexico. Intermittent connections with the gulf are what make the lakes rare.
The health of the lakes depends on shoreline vegetation that includes sawgrass, Ellis said.
The debris could cause algae blooms, kill the vegetation and pollute the water over time, he said.
?The vegetation is nature?s filtration device for the lakes,? Ellis said. ?That?s how the lake manages itself naturally.?
People who enjoy the coastal dune lakes are hoping that the county gets someone out there to clean them up soon, Stein said.
?I?m extremely frustrated by it, quite honestly,? he said. ?We?re waiting for the county.?
Lucas, a local artist and painter, hopes the lakes will return to a more natural state soon.
?My favorite subject is the coastal dune lakes,? she said.