Latest Lake Apopka cleanup plan could be magic bullet
The world has yet to effectively curb fossil-fuel pollution projected to trigger extreme heat, and
Whether humankind can come up with a Hail Mary for climate change is years or decades away.
But a privately funded, prototype machine may be on the brink of finally cleansing a
Lake Apopka’s woes are the same as what confronts many of Florida’s major rivers, lakes and estuaries: nutrient pollution feeding explosive growth of harmful algae.
A magic bullet may be at hand.
“Lake Apopka can’t take care of itself,” said
The Phosphorus Free system will withdraw lake water, filter out solid particles and then treat that filtered water with a concoction of magnesium and calcium.
Both stages are designed to remove phosphorus, an ingredient of nutrient pollution. The solid particles will be spread across former farmland, where soil shriveled several feet in elevation from decades of cultivation and sun exposure.
The sludge from chemical treatment will be disposed of in a landfill.
“We’ve got no doubt this will work,” Luke said.
What climate change and nutrient pollution have strongly in common is the lack of will to tackle life-threatening disasters conventionally.
For climate change, that includes addressing auto emissions, power and food production, household habits, forest protections and more.
For nutrient pollution, that includes solving pollution from septic tanks, municipal sewage systems, agriculture practices, and getting homeowners and landscape crews to not deposit lawn fertilizer and grass cuttings into gutters.
Both paths are hard, complex and vexed by the politics of government regulation.
Nutrient pollution “is one of America's most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems,” according to the
One of the state’s biggest lakes,
In its storied downfall in the 1900s, citrus processing, sewage and farm discharges filled the lake with nutrient pollution.
The state bought out lakeside farms in the 1990s. An attempt to convert thousands of acres of farmland back into marsh brought a massive and lethal poisoning of birds with now-banned farm pesticides.
Rocked by that carnage, the
Today is a new dawn for
Once a remote lake at its north end, cars now whiz by on the
Many other inventors and entrepreneurs have knocked at the district door, Marzolf said, promising a solution to Apopka’s phosphorus, and requesting that the district pay for testing and implementation.
Phosphorus Free Water Solutions took a different tack.
“Everything you see here, we’ve paid for,” Luke said. “We’ve not been paid a penny.”
Luke, a
"Candidly, any rational investor wouldn’t come within 100 miles of this economic opportunity,” said company investor and president
McIntee said the project grew – in short – out of awareness of the deterioration of Minnesota’s famed land of 10,000 lakes, “which is a disaster for us,” relatively conducive water regulations in
“Water is a public good and the public needs to invest in it,” McIntee said. “We’ve been willing to jump in, take the risks that we’ve taken. We would love for this to be successful and take off and let others expand this across the globe.”
The two described the project at
Instead, and this is part of the key risk, the water district has agreed to a one-year contract worth
It’s up to Phosphorus Free to prove that further contacts are worthwhile to the district, Luke and McIntee said.
Previous work by the water district to remove phosphorus cost
Those approaches take significant amounts of land or time.
In 2014, the water district rejected as too costly a proposal by
The water district hasn’t set a formal target for the total amount of phosphorus to be removed from
“Don’t trust us until we deliver,” Luke said. “Just pay us for what we do.”
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