{"id":381923,"date":"2026-08-26T20:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381923\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T20:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:40:09","slug":"state-funding-will-help-improve-water-quality-at-winter-parks-mead-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381923\/","title":{"rendered":"State funding will help improve water quality at Winter Park\u2019s Mead Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINTER PARK, Fla. \u2013 Just days after Leu Gardens postponed planned improvements because of budget concerns<\/a>, Mead Botanical Garden is moving forward with a water-quality project funded by the state.<\/p>\n

The project will focus on Alice\u2019s Pond, where excess nitrogen and phosphorus can fuel harmful algal blooms, damage aquatic life and reduce biodiversity.<\/p>\n

The pond is part of a connected system of waterways that flows through the Winter Park chain of lakes and north into Seminole County, eventually reaching Lake Jesup and the St. Johns River.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlice\u2019s Pond is the headwaters to a lot of the Winter Park chain of lakes, and that flows north into Seminole County, which flows into Lake Jesup, which flows into the St. Johns River,\u201d said State Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-District 10.<\/p>\n

Brodeur and State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-District 42, spearheaded $500,000 in state funding for the project.<\/p>\n

The money will pay for technology designed to bind excess nutrients and remove them from the water column. The goal is to reduce the fuel that harmful algal blooms need to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis technology goes in, surrounds it and makes it drop,\u201d Brodeur said. \u201cSo it comes out of the column so that there\u2019s no more fuel for the harmful algal blooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eskamani said improving water quality at Mead Gardens could benefit connected waterways across the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecuring these dollars to help do the best practices to maintain high water quality standards for Mead Gardens and for the water bodies that they call home,\u201d she said. \u201cIt really is a ripple effect to the rest of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is also expected to help protect waterways used for fishing, boating and other recreational activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida\u2019s known for its natural resources and for recreational activities that involve water, like fishing and boating and so forth,\u201d Eskamani said. \u201cAnd at the same time, that water quality also impacts the water that comes out of your faucet. It impacts the water that your kids get to play in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINTER PARK, Fla. \u2013 Just days after Leu Gardens postponed planned improvements because of budget concerns, Mead Botanical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1563,2161,153262,1335,139,141,140,4567],"class_list":["post-381923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-environment","tag-government","tag-mead-gardens","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-winter-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}