HOMOSASSA, Fla. — Florida springs and the rivers they feed into are some of Florida’s most precious resources, including the Homosassa River. It serves as a habitat for wildlife and plants, and is used recreationally by both residents and visitors alike.

But over the years, an invasive algae has taken hold. Now, concerns grow as funding for restoration efforts hangs in the balance.

Retired firefighter Steve Minguy is the president of the Homosassa River Restoration Project. He recalled when he first moved to the river community with his wife.

“We were about 15 years out from retirement and we were looking to retire on the water,” Minguy said. “A friend told us about Homosassa, I came out and took a look at it. I think a month later, we owned our house.”

Minguy’s boat is docked not even a quarter mile from the section of the river the locals call the blue waters.

“It is beautiful, we thought. But all the neighbors and the longtime residents kept telling us how beautiful it used to be,” Minguy said.

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It was a river much clearer and full of vegetation. But over the last few decades, Minguy said the area has been overrun by a toxic blue-green algae known as lyngbya. It coves much of the riverbed and if it’s allowed to keep growing, it’s projected to kill of 90 percent of the river’s native vegetation.

In 2016, Minguy and other concerned residents learned of the same issue just north of them at Crystal River, where restoration efforts had already begun.

“We were invited up to Crystal River to see what they were doing up there and I’d say within 10 minutes of being on one of their boats, I wasn’t even listening anymore,” Minguy said. "I just decided we have to do it here at the Homosassa.”

A grassroots effort took off and the Homosassa River Restoration project was formed. The group took their cause to Tallahassee, worked and reworked plans. Finally, in 2020, Minguy says he got a call that $2 million in grant funding had come through.

“I was dancing in the living room,” Minguy recalled with a laugh. “It wasn’t pretty.”

At last, work on the river could finally begin.

The goal is to replant seagrass, so that it grows, forms meadows and takes back the riverbed. It’s all done by a team with Sea and Shoreline, the aquatic restoration company contracted to do the work, the same company working successfully on Crystal River.

The first step is vacuuming the riverbed. A diver uses a hose to suck up the algae. The water is then cleaned and put back.

“These guys are down there, sometimes in zero visibility, removing all of that,” said project biologist Jessica Mailliez. “So when the biology team comes in they have a nice natural bottom to put those plants in.”

The team uses eelgrass, which is grown in the Sea and Shoreline nursery. Often, cages are installed for protection until the plants are established enough for removal.

Already, Mailliez says the team is seeing success and manatees are feeding on newly formed meadows.

“We have a strong root hold and these plants, even though they’re being munched on, springtime next year, when the manatees move back out to the gulf, these plants will grow tall again,” Mailliez said.

And it’s not just food for the manatees. The grass provides cover for smaller marine life, helps to filter water and stabilize the riverbed. Mailliez said what the Lyngbya algae destroys will eventually affect us, too.

“A lot of people may not understand how bad this river system could be without restoration efforts. We could lose our crabbing industry. We could lose recreational and commercial fishing,” Mailliez said. “We could just lose the enjoyment of hanging out in the river in the crystal clear spring water. It will be just a downfall for the community.”

By the end of this planting season, Sea and Shoreline will have completed phase one of the project, a total of 25 acres cleaned and planted.

Minguy recalled what it was like to first see grass growing in place of the lyngbya algae.

“To go up there after all these years and to go underneath the bridge and see nothing but grass meadows, white sand and no algae was gorgeous,” he said. “We couldn’t wait to get in the water.”

It was a rewarding feeling, though Minguy said there is still a long way to go. To date, the Homosassa River Restoration Project has received a total of $9.5 million in state funding. But to finish all 53 acres of the blue waters, another $9 million is needed — even more if efforts are to continue further down the river.

Right now, that funding has stalled. An earmarked $10 million, approved in the most recent state budget, was vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, despite an equal amount approved for the very same work being done in Crystal River. In fact, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, funding for the efforts at Crystal River have now reached $37 million.

“We are basically the same type of river. We have the same issues and we’re using the same project and we’re getting the same results. So it would be nice to get the same funding,” Minguy said. “However, I love it when Crystal River gets funding. That means they’re going to get their project done. I’m just hoping that down the line, we’re shown the same love.”

A manatee grazes on a now restored grass meadow in the blue waters area of Homosassa River (Cait McVey/Spectrum Bay News 9)

Hope now hinges on the latest round of grant money the Homosassa River Restoration Project has applied for: $4 million dollars in grant funding, which would allow planting to continue at least another season.

As Minguy and all those involved anxiously await word on funding approval, they worry about the possibility that the progress they’ve made will be overcome once again by the toxic algae.

Spectrum News reached out to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to find out the status of those applications.

“The Homosassa River Restoration Project and Save Crystal River, Inc. applied for $2 million in Springs Restoration funding for their respective multi-year projects,” responded Press Secretary Alexandra Kutcha, in an email. “Additionally, both groups have also requested grant funding through the Spring Coast Water Quality funding. While we don’t have an exact timeline for when these funds will be awarded, it is this fiscal year’s funding so awards will be announced in the near future.”

Kutcha also outlined the overall financial commitment that state has made specifically to springs restoration, citing $300 million over the last four years.

“This record funding has enabled the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to assist local governments and other stakeholders to identify and construct projects that are imperative to achieving restoration goals,” said Kutcha. “Two examples of this are the restoration projects at the Homosassa River and Kings Bay along Florida’s Gulf Coast.”

Park Services Specialist, Rick Coosey

Park Services Specialist Rick Coosey has always enjoyed being outdoors. From breathing in the salty air on sandy beaches to exploring the quiet wonders of shady mangroves, he finds himself most at peace when he is outdoors.

“I thought it would be a cool job to work outdoors in a natural environment, and there was an opening at Honeymoon Island so I applied,” says Rick. That was in 1998. He was hired to Honeymoon Island State Park and worked there for nearly 20 years, also helping to take care of associated parks Anclote Key, Caladesi Island, Egmont Key and the Skyway Fishing Piers.

Over the years, he held many positions, including a substitute maintenance mechanic, maintenance repairman, park ranger and assistant park manager. Upon leaving the beach parks, he was a park ranger for a short amount of time at DeLeon Springs State park before coming to Ellie Schiller Homosassa Spring Wildlife State Park as a maintenance park services specialist.

With his diverse experience, Rick has an abundance of stories and favorite places. He starts his workday with the rising sun, walking along sandy beaches conducting sea turtle patrol during nesting season. Remote islands have welcomed him into their wild landscape during picnic pavilion construction. Rick has enjoyed giving guided trail walks and leading interpretive programs about ospreys in the spring while watching manatees swim and rest in warm waters in the winter.

One of his most memorable experiences was making additions onto park housing at Caladesi Island, a place that is accessible only by boat. He worked the project start to finish, having the blueprints drawn up, materials ordered and then working with park staff and volunteers to build the rooms.

On any given workday, Rick can be found replacing boardwalk, repairing a diesel engine or maintaining manatee pool heaters. His skillset is diverse and he is able to determine how to fix anything.

According to Park Manager Zach Phifer, “Rick does a great job representing the Florida Park Service and its core values! We’re very fortunate here at Homosassa Springs to have his years of knowledge, skills and abilities. He is held in very high regard by his coworkers, volunteers and supervisors and is an integral part of what makes this park tick. Rick is always willing to give a helping hand and continuously demonstrates a positive attitude.”

HOMOSASSA SPRINGS — Lu has always been the star of the show.

From his days as a young, sought-after talent, to his movie and TV career in the 60s, Lu knows a thing or two about captivating an audience.

Today, the aging actor is enjoying retirement in Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. But Father Time is catching up to him. Lu relies on medication and supervision from dedicated caretakers, such as Kate Spratt.

“We love Lu,” Spratt said, “and he’s one of our family members, and it’s pretty special to get to work with him.”

The feeling is mutual among Lu’s caretakers, but none have a bigger connection to him than James Curry. Curry says Lu is one of the biggest reasons why he got into this profession in the first place.

“I first met Lu in 1981 when I was three years old,” Curry said, “and I’ve been with him ever since, you know, from childhood all the way now to have worked—been able to have the pleasure of working with him for the last decade.”

Curry says words can’t describe how amazing it is to work with Lu. And Curry tries to see him at least once every day, whether that’s to help him eat, to check his health, or to just chat.

But Curry knows that if he visits Lu, he has to be careful where he stands. The last thing he wants is to be covered in hippo dung.

And with a 6,000-pound hippo like Lu, flying feces is a real threat.

“Hippopotamuses are very territorial animals,” Curry said. “One of the ways they claim their territory is by urinating and defecating on objects. So what they will do is begin to defecate and twirl their tale around real fast and then they will fling dung all over something.”

Luckily, Lu’s exhibit has a big yellow sign labeled “Splatter Zone” that warns any unsuspecting bystanders.

Of course, visitors don’t flock to the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park just to get covered in hippo feces. They come to see the oldest hippo in the Americas: Lu, which is short for Lucifer. The 60-year-old bull hippopotamus has lived at the park for almost his entire life.

Born in San Diego in 1960, Lu was relocated to Homosassa Springs to join the Ivan Tors Animal Actors. After nearly two decades of starring in movies and television specials, Lu suddenly faced eviction from his beloved home.

In 1989, the Florida Park Service took over the park and planned to move non-native species out of the state, which included Lu the Hippo. But Lu had become such a beloved member of the Homosassa community. So to keep Lu in the park, a petition was created and sent to Lawton Chiles, Florida’s Governor at the time.

“Governor Chiles agreed and actually made Lu an honorary Florida citizen,” Spratt said, “and that makes him the one and only Florida hippopotamus, and because he’s a citizen that’s how he’s allowed to stay in a Florida State Park as a non-native animal.”

Nearly three decades after becoming the only animal citizen in the state, Lu enjoys most of his days swimming in his enclosure, playing with his toys or entertaining visitors, though visitation is limited due to the pandemic.

Andrea Junkunc, who — like Curry and Spratt — is a Park Services Specialist, says the lack of a big audience doesn’t bother Lu too much.

“He has been in captivity his entire life,” Junkunc said. “He really does seem to like to interact with the visitors and he’s a big star here so everyone else’s name, they call out to him, sometimes he calls back. When he’s feeling really good he’ll kind of do like this weird somersaults where we can see his feet come up in the air.”

Indeed, Lu is living his best life. And while plans are still being made for his 61st birthday in January, feel free to stop by the state park and say hi to one of America’s most treasured animals.

Just don’t get caught in the Splatter Zone.

A win-win strategy is in motion to give the rehabilitation of the Homosassa River better footing, and also rid a former riverfront RV park of its derelict trailers.

Sea & Shoreline, LLC crews contracted by the nonprofit Homosassa River Restoration Project Inc. (HRRP) recently demolished roughly a dozen unlivable mobile homes at Sportsman Cove off of Fishbowl Drive, near the Homosassa water tower.

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Workers tore down the last trailer Monday, March 14, and hope to clear the 10-acre site of remaining debris within the next two weeks, depending on their hauler’s availability.

In exchange for the demolition, the property owner agreed to let the HRRP on their land so the organization can set up its final base of operations and finish restoring 46.19 acres of the river by 2025, from its headspring to south of the Halls River Road bridge.

“He had heard about our project,” HRRP Board President Steve Minguy said of the landowner’s representative, “and thought this would be a great fit for us to have a new worksite to help the river, and to help the owner with some of the trailers he was having an issue with with Citrus County.”

“He’s happy, we’re happy, and this is going to be the future of the project, this site,” added Mark Mekelburg, a Sea & Shoreline superintendent. “It was effort and teamwork to get stuff done, and this is the ticket for the future of the project.”

Sea & Shoreline barges and divers are slated to go in the river April 1 to start vacuuming out layers of accumulated muck and detrital materials from its depths, which will then be planted with lush and sustainable eelgrass to help bolster marine habitats.

Whatever’s removed from the river is piped back to Sea & Shoreline’s on-land filtration site before clean water is pumped back into the river.

HRRP has used Sea & Shoreline’s method since 2020, when it launched the first phase of cleanup in canals and coves between Fishbowl Drive and Spring Cove Road.

Sea & Shoreline rented private land behind the Bella Oasis Hotel off of U.S. 19 to house its filtration devices, including large and porous Geotube bags river water seeps through after it’s treated for microscopic contaminants.

During 2020 and 2021 from the site along the highway, the HRRP has restored a total 13.56 acres of the river, planted almost 74,500 eelgrasses, and reopened 21 spring vents.

However, Sea & Shoreline’s access to the water from upriver has been limited, requiring its workers to rely on a long network of pipes running down Pepper Creek and into the Homosassa River.

Entering the river closer to its headsprings, where many boaters gather, also put Sea & Shoreline’s in-water crews in close and sometimes dangerous contact with vessels.

“We’ve had some pretty close calls here,” Mekelburg said, “boaters traveling over divers in six feet of water. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Being at Sportsman Cove gives Sea & Shoreline direct and safer access to the water, keeping costs down for the HRRP.

“Moving downstream, this was great,” Minguy said. “The less distance Sea & Shoreline has to pump, then the cheaper it is per square foot for us to get things done so it works for us.”

According to prior reports, power to the Sportsman Cove RV park was shut off in October 2015 after Citrus County’s building department cited several instances of illegal wiring between its mobile homes, along with electrical repairs being done by unlicensed electricians or without permits.

Florida Department of Health officials also refused to renew the park’s license to operate because of septic issues.

County spokeswoman Veronica Kampschroer told the Chronicle on Thursday the building department’s open code cases for the property “are all pertaining to the existing unsafe structures.”

“If those structures were to be demolished,” Kampschroer said, “that would satisfy the open code cases as of today.”

From its new location, Sea & Shoreline is hoping to complete the HRRP’s remaining 10.13 acres of its first cleanup phase by November.

Sea & Shoreline also has other uses in mind for its Bella Oasis site but if those plans don’t happen, the company will revert the land to manage stormwater, per its owner’s wishes.

HRRP officials also look like they secured funding to finish the last 22.5 acres of their project’s remaining two phases, which the nonprofit hopes to have permitted by April to start work as soon as possible.

“We have the money,” Minguy said, “it’s just a matter of Sea & Shoreline having the crews, and the weather cooperating.”

Florida lawmakers in their March 14 pass of the 2022 state budget allocated $10 million toward the Homosassa River Restoration Project, but Gov. Ron DeSantis could still veto the line item.

Minguy said he “can’t stop smiling” about how the HRRP has grown from a grassroots campaign started in 2016.

“It’s very exciting for us,” he said. “It seemed like it took forever, and the fact that we’re here now is amazing.”

Community support is crucial to the success of the HRRP, especially when it’s board is asking legislators for money.

“Without that support, we can afford to get those permits,” Minguy said. “When the community’s behind you, then the state’s more willing to fund your project.”

Contributions to the HRRP go toward the nonprofit’s administrative, permitting and operating costs, while state funding is dedicated to the river’s restoration.

Have a question about the project itself? Call either Mekelburg at 352-231-1077 or Minguy at 407-832-1598. Project updates are also posted on HRRP’s Facebook page, tinyurl.com/4bv5atxs.

Mekelburg and Minguy asked the public to stayed informed about the project and its latest status so they know either where not to boat or what not to disturb, like Sea & Shoreline’s underwater pipes and cages protecting young eelgrasses.

“Be aware of our barges and divers in the waters,” Mekelburg said. “We’re here because we care about the water, we care about the quality of the water, and, in turn, we care about the people going out on the water.”

Contact Chronicle reporter Buster Thompson at 352-564-2916, bthompson@chronicleonline.com or visit tinyurl.com/yxn2ahso to see more of his stories.

Citrus County Emergency Management officials continue to track Hurricane Ian as it makes its way south of Citrus County, a Citrus County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman wrote in a news release.

As Ian continues to increase in intensity, the storm will also grow in size, Carman said. Impacts can and will spread well beyond the center. Due to the slow movement of the storm, wind impacts could last as long as 24 hours. Ian is forecasted to approach Citrus County with tropical storm force winds, including possible tornadoes at 11 a.m. today. Citrus County remains under a tropical storm warning as well as a flood watch.

Rainfall will be a major and potentially catastrophic hazard with this storm. These bands of major rainfall can be prolonged and will have the potential to cause street flooding. This will flood localized areas, streets, and rivers. Citrus County is now forecasted to experience possible 2-4 ft. peak storm surge on the west coast.

Ian, according to Brittney Carman, sheriff’s office spokeswoman, is moving toward the north-northeast near 9 mph. This general motion with a reduction in forward speed is forecast today, followed by a turn toward the north Thursday, Sept. 29.

Hurricane Ian rapidly intensified as it neared landfall along Florida's southwest coast Wednesday morning, gaining top winds of 155 mph (250 kph), according to the Associated Press, just shy of the most dangerous Category 5 status. Damaging winds and rain lashed the state, and the heavily populated Naples to Sarasota region was at highest risk of a devastating storm surge.

U.S. Air Force hurricane hunters confirmed Ian gained strength over warm Gulf of Mexico water after battering Cuba, bringing down the country’s electricity grid and leaving the entire island without power. Ian was centered about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west-southwest of Naples at 7 a.m., swirling toward the coast at 10 mph (17 kph).

Currently, all full-service sandbag locations are closed until further notice. However, two self-service locations are still open as weather permits at:

Bicentennial Park, 501 N. Baseball Point, Crystal River

Floral Park, 9530 S. Parkside Ave., Floral City

For information about sandbag sites, call 352-527-7610.

All community centers, to include the Canning Center, Beverly Hills, Citrus Springs, Central Ridge and Holder Community Building, are closed until further notice.

All Citrus County Parks and Recreation Programs are canceled through Thursday. All Citrus County Library System programs are cancelled throughout Saturday. All Citrus County Schools are closed through Friday.

At this time, citizens are urged to shelter in place, and follow the direction of local officials via radio, television broadcasts, and social media channels.

Please only use 911 in the event of an emergency.