I called the City of Orlando, and they gave me the phone number of Maurice Gioseffi of the Orlando Lakewatch program. I was hoping that he could just tell me whether we had "killer algae" in my lake, but he convinced me that if I were really interested in the health of my lake, I should participate in Lakewatch. He came over to my house the next weekend to train me to collect lake data and water samples. He said that Lakewatch asks residents to help with its program of monitoring the health of Central Florida lakes. I was trained in how to collect samples from our lake. He taught me how to do water-clarity readings using a Secchi disc, depth readings, proper sample collections, and how to filter the samples using a vacuum pump. I put the filtered samples in a desiccant jar and took the water and chlorophyll samples to the freezer at the city's lab, where they would then be sent to the University of Florida in Gainesville. There, researchers would measure three things: the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and chlorophyll present. These three things would give us indicators of how healthy the lake was. I learned from the materials he gave me that most of the algae in Florida lakes is blue-green algae—the very kind that includes toxic species. It is important to find out if you have a lake with too much algae, because algae blooms create conditions in which toxins are released. At all of my sampling sites I observed that the Secchi disc disappeared at only 9/10 of a foot (the readings on the rope were in tenths of a foot). That is a very opaque, nutrient-rich lake! I also found that my lake has a mean depth of about 10.8 feet.

My data is recorded in the Lake Water Quality Report, produced annually by the Stormwater Utility Bureau of the City of Orlando. I finally got to see the results of my initial sample collections (I have now been collecting and sending samples for the yearly report for three years). The report said that Spring Lake is a eutrophic lake, hitting hypereutrophic levels in the summer months! The researchers at Gaineville measured the amount of chlorophyll-a in the samples I sent them, as well as phosphorus and nitrogen levels. Chlorophyll is the green pigment found in plants. Almost all algae are green, so the concentration of chlorophyll-a is measured to indicate the amount of algae present in the water body. Chlorophyll-a values greater than 20 mg/m3 are used by the city to identify problem lakes, and Spring Lake had a mean value of 41 mg/m3 (Lake Water Quality Report, 2000).