Mayor Bryan Nelson announced Thursday a pumping system to decrease future flood levels at Border Lake.
“We’re going to be pumping water out of Border Lake into Lake Jackson, then into Lake McDade, then into Piedmont Lake, then into Blue Lake, and then into Lake Page, where we have a drainage well,” Nelson said during a June 26 press conference. “We’ll reduce basically about one foot of water in all the four lakes here, and then that excess water will go into the drainage well in [Lake Page].”
The Border Lake, Lake Ruden, Lake Cortez, Piedmont Lake and Lake Page area has flooded multiple times in the last three years. As a result, the city of Apopka hopes to have a line going directly from Border Lake to the wastewater treatment plant. That water would then enter the reclaimed water system.
Until the continuous pipe is completed, though, the pumping system will remedy the problem.
“We’ve got up to the end of August to complete the project,” Nelson said. “If we get additional rains between now and August, we have a minimum water level that we can’t go below. So St. John’s will be monitoring along with our public works team, so we make sure that we go according to plan.”
The city of Apopka has secured $2.5 million from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and is awaiting notification for two other grants from Orange County Hazard Mitigation Funding.
Nelson’s goal is to store 1 billion gallons of water from summer rain and then use that water in the spring. He said the reclamation project reminded him of his days as a nurseryman.
“I was the first one to take on reclaimed water from the city of Apopka 30 years ago,” Nelson said. “It was pretty cool to see us kind of come in full circle.”
