Newberry seeks $3 million for a sewer plant upgrade and a reclaimed water system for irrigation. High Springs seeks nearly $2.5 million to expand its sewer system. Archer continues to seek money - $3 million in this request - to construct a sewer system and wastewater treatment plant. Waldo, Hawthorne and Alachua want to upgrade or replace aging water and sewer infrastructure. Six local municipalities - Alachua, Archer, Hawthorne, High Springs, Newberry and Waldo - have submitted a combined $13.3 million in requests for water and sewer infrastructure projects. Other parts of the county's requested study include looking at ways to stop stormwater runoff from eroding the natural phosphate deposits in Little Hatchet Creek and carrying them downstream to Newnan's Lake. The county has put in a $312,400 request for an Orange Creek Basin Restoration Initiative study that would look at potential ways, including dredging, to remove and dispose of the 8 feet of muck on average that coats the bottom of Newnan's Lake.Īlachua County Environmental Protection Department Director Chris Bird said one significant question involved in potentially dredging Newnan's Lake is the presence of several dozen ancient canoes, some dating back 5,000 years, scattered across the lake bed. He said it has never been a particularly “healthy lake” during that time, but he said its health and water levels have continued to decline as algae, high nitrate and low oxygen levels have choked the water body and led to fish kills.Įast of Gainesville, Alachua County government has submitted a much smaller request for a study on how to clean up a much larger lake with much greater public access. Perry has lived in a home on the shore of Bivens Arm for 28 years. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, is seeking to dredge Bivens Arm, the polluted, muck-filled lake into which a large swath of Gainesville drains, carrying phosphates, nitrates and sediment.

The largest local request is $12 million that state Rep.

Statewide, 475 proposed projects totaling $1.2 billion have flowed into the Florida House of Representatives' Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee.Īlachua County's local governments and officials have got in on the action as well. Heading into the first legislative session since the approval of Amendment 1, the floodgates have opened on funding requests for water projects.

Legacy dredge led