From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be updated. Parts of this article or section have been identified as no longer being up to date. Please update the article to reflect recent events, and remove this template when finished.

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Lake Apopka is one of the largest lakes in Florida in the United States. It is located west of Orlando and mostly in Orange County, but the western part is in Lake County. Fed by a natural spring, rainfall and stormwater runoff, water from Lake Apopka flows through the Apopka-Beauclair Canal and into Lakes Beauclair and Dora. From Lake Dora, water flows into Lake Eustis, then into Lake Griffin and then northward into the Ocklawaha River, which flows into the St. Johns River. Through the 1940s, Lake Apopka was one of central Florida’s main attractions. Anglers traveled from throughout the United States fish for trophy-sized bass in Lake Apopka, and 21 fish camps lined the lake’s shoreline.

Lake Apopka has a history of more than 100 years of human alteration, beginning with construction of the Apopka-Beauclair Canal in 1888. In 1941, a levee was built along the north shore to drain 20,000 acres of shallow marsh for farming. The discharge of water, rich in nutrients from agricultural and other sources, produced conditions that created a chronic algal bloom and resulted in loss of the lake’s recreational value and game fish populations.

In the late 1990's, birds at the lake were actually falling from the sky and dying in large numbers. Most of the dead birds were White Pelicans, but Great Egrets and Ring-billed gulls made up most of the other deaths. The deaths were thought to be tied to pesticides that farmers depended on for decades, called organochlorines. Lake apopka also had a drought.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service warned that people shouldn't eat fish caught in Lake Apopka, since the chemicals were labeled as a possible cause for the deaths.

• Jacksonville.com - Lake Apopka: An environmental tragedy (requires login)
• The Road Atlas '06, Rand McNally, pg. 27

This Florida state location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Coordinates: 28°37′14″N, 81°37′19″W