Return of the scum

APRIL FOOLS’ — After years of fighting to clean their ponds, residents of Tara Preserve received some startling news at the Community Development District’s March 22 meeting.

Due to legal action by the environmental advocacy organization, Allied4Algae, Tara Preserve must put the algae back into its waters.

Tara residents were shocked by the news, since much progress has been made to get rid of the foul-smelling algae so prevalent in its retention ponds. Tara also will have to allow the lily pads to grow freely, another about-face from the effort to rid the ponds of the unsightly plants.

Allied4Algae presented Tara Preserve with a court order to cease any efforts to remove algae and also a program to return the waters to their previous state. Workers were busy the past week dumping algae back into the ponds.

Aquatic biologist Dr. A.L. Gee, who represented Allied4Algae at the meeting, told Tara residents if they continue their path in getting rid of the algae, they were “permitting a crime against nature.”

“Algae in pond water makes a great natural and healthy food source for fish, and is a natural way of providing sufficient oxygen for the fish, without having to spend thousands on pond aerators,” Gee said.

Five members of Allied4Algae spoke at the meeting as well. One member, a Tara resident, Skye Wardcourt, particularly protested the CDD’s plan to fill in Pond 46.

“I love the smell of swamp in the morning with my coffee,” he said. “You can’t violate my right to enjoy the Preserve. That’s the whole reason I moved here.”

Two Allied members, Steve and Kumiko Brown, have decided to take matters into their own hands by returning algae into the pond in their backyard.

Steve Brown said he had his pool cleaner test the pond.

“The results indicated the pond’s algae levels are deficient, so we need to add some,” he said.

According to a report by the ecohydrologist hired by the organization, Wat R. Scumm, the water algae levels were so low that the ponds could actually have a negative reaction to re-introducing the local species back to the water.

Brown and his wife concocted a highly-concentrated batch of algae — their “home recipe”— using algae scrapings from their pool filter and mixing it with Pacific Planktonic and Asian Spirogyra algae.

“We need to ‘shock’ the ponds with algae,” Steve Brown said. “We also are thinking of adding baking powder to the pond to stabilize the pH.”

Tara CDD supervisors agreed that losing the algae would change the character of their neighborhood. While residents had complained in the past about the smell and aesthetics of the gunk in the ponds, it was clear that the algae was serving a biological purpose.

The district engineer said the cost of replacing the algae would probably be about $80,000. Supervisors voted to halt the repairs to the pool equipment room to pay for the algae replacement project. The move will close the pool for the next eight months.

“We understand that it will be inconvenient,” a supervisor said. “We have purchased 12 Slip’n Slides that we will position throughout Tara for those who would like to get wet.”