Grants fund project to keep pollutants out of lakes Griffin and Harris

LEESBURG – A pair of projects designed to reduce pollutants flowing into Lake Griffin and Lake Harris are the result of collaboration between the city and county, regional and state agencies.

Grant funds will cover about 89 percent of the estimated $910,600 in construction costs for two new stormwater treatment sites in Leesburg, said DC Maudlin, the city’s public works director. The St. Johns River Water Management District, the Lake County Water Authority, the state Department of Environmental Protection, as well as the city, are contributing funding.

“We have a good relationship with those folks,” Maudlin said. “We’re happy to be working with these agencies.”

The projects not only will improve the lakes’ water quality, but residents also will be able to use a new trail and linear park at one of the sites.

Construction has begun on a wet detention pond that will incorporate an existing wetland on 2.7 acres south of U.S. Highway 441, between the Cutrale citrus plant and a city electric department substation, Maudlin said. The treatment site will improve stormwater storage and reduce nutrients and sediments entering nearby Lake Griffin.

The second project is in the Heritage Estates neighborhood north of Lake Harris. Swales, or detention areas, will be constructed in place of a debris-filled ditch that runs southeast under Dixie Avenue and discharges untreated water into Lake Harris, Maudlin said. Stormwater will be treated as it flows through the series of swales and out to the lake.

Preliminary work has begun at Heritage Estates, a city spokesman said, and construction will be done by Global Contracting Group of Wildwood.