LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — Jeanna Fine says Curve Lake used to be a place to swim, paddle board, and go tubing.
"You could see underneath. You could see the fish,” Fine said.
But now it looks like a murky brown mess.
WATCH: 'Its turned into a swamp.' Once thriving lake is now 'sick'
“Its turned into a swamp,” Fine said.
Fine says the water quality has gotten progressively worse, especially after a new housing development was built on the other side of the lake.
"That was once orange groves and over time they took away the grasses for the buffer. This is a spring fed lake. It really shouldn't be like this,” Fine said.
Fine said SWFWMD tests showed the water wasn't at toxic levels but they advised against going in.
"That was just May they came out. So, is it toxic now,” Fine asked.
I wanted to help address Fine's concerns, so I emailed Pasco County officials to see what can be done.
They say the new development may contribute to Curve Lake's declining condition, but it's not the sole cause.
They say "nature can absorb impacts for decades before showing signs of stress."
Pasco officials also suggest the community forms what's called a lake association and join Florida LAKEWATCH.
That's a citizen volunteer lake monitoring program coordinated through the University of Florida.
USF professor Nick Albergo teaches environmental engineering and says the LAKEWATCH program doesn't guarantee improved water quality.
"I think what it does is improve the information that's available about why water quality is impacted be it through septic systems, agricultural or residential development run off,” Albergo said.
LAKEWATCH will train people to collect their own water samples and analyze them at no cost.
They'll also have access to technical assistance from experts, but those experts say there is no quick fix.
"By hook or by crook the water eventually gets to all of those lakes and they are all interconnected at some point and so just generic flow through those lakes also impacts the health of them,” Albergo said.
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