Orange County warns residents of high lake levels, large wakes

Orange County commissioners passed a resolution during their Sept. 18 meeting urging boaters and anyone using recreational watercraft to maintain slow speeds and avoid large wakes.

Discussion of the resolution was proposed by Orange County District 1 Commissioner Betsy VanderLey, whose office has received a few calls about high water levels in lakes.

“We have several areas where some folks have put up sandbags and that kind of thing because the water is very high,” VanderLey said. “Lake Nally is one of them. I also had a conversation with Mayor (Gary) Bruhn in Windermere, and he was sharing how high the water is on the (Butler Chain of Lakes). So it occurred to me that there's a safety issue here because people are still (using) the lakes. You don't notice it in a boat that the lakes are high, but you sure do on land.”

VanderLey feared that a submerged dock could pose a danger to unsuspecting boaters.

“We have a lot of lakes and enclosed basins, such as in the Gotha area where there's no positive outfall for that water to go,” VanderLey said. “So the water levels are rising and that creates a couple of problems. I'm concerned someone who is unfamiliar with a lake and out on a jet ski might run up onto a submerged dock that hasn't been flagged… and someone might get injured. So I want to make sure that as the water rises, we do some safety-type of fixes, such as marking those docks. We don't want to have to worry about a boating accident because the dock is submerged."

The high-water also poses a potential risk to lakefront residences, because large wakes from boats could cause the already high water to reach yards and homes and cause property damage, she said. As such, the resolution encourages slow speeds and minimum wakes 300 feet from the shoreline, she said.

“A lot of boats create huge wakes … and the problem is that when they come close to shore ... because the lakes are so high, some of that water is washing right into people's porches and potentially into their home from that wake,” she said. “And so, I'm trying to bring that to their attention because I think they may not realize it's washing up that high.”

VanderLey pointed out the county is unable to enforce the posted signs because the County lacks the authority to mandate “no wake” zones.

“We don't have any legal way to enforce it,” she said. “The (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) has purview over enforcing different behaviors on the lakes. We can only suggest that people be sensitive to their neighbors … because we don't have any legal jurisdiction over the lakes.”