Man Found Camping On Discovery Island, Arrested and Banned

So Disney use to treat the lake and stopped?
No. They never treated Bay lake or the Seven Seas lagoon or any of the other bodies of fresh water. They could not even if they wanted to due to the Florida water management system.

Even treated water can be at risk for ameba populations. Several water parks have had reported situations throughout the US.

The most recent one that sticks with me is the white water training center in NC. A young woman died and the CDC investigated and found the water treatment and filtration system had the ameba present. The young woman died after kayaking there.

Dave
 


No changes since 1971 just a fact of life in any fresh body of water that is not treated. In "summer" months (warm) almost any untreated body of water can have amoeba that are dangerous if they enter your nasal passages. Somewhat rare but cases do happen every year. The disease, amoebic meningoencephalitis, attacks the nervous system and brain. It is often referred to as the brain eating amoeba.

It is like an algae bloom but with a deadly amoeba that flourish in warm water. There have been deaths in may parts of the country, it is not unique to Florida.

We grew up swimming in Bay lake while on vacation at Disneyworld, our kids swam in bay lake until the mid 90's. First Disney removed swimming areas in Bay lake and finally in 2018 Sammy Duvall’s Waterpsorts Centre closed forever on August 31st, 2018. They offered parasailing, tubing, wake boarding, and waterskiing in Bay lake.

Dave

Does it affect salt water as well, or just fresh? What water temperature do they grow in?
 


I have a question for Floridians who understand lake biology. We know that people use to ski and swim directly in the Bay Lake waters in the 70s and 80s. And back then the water looked much "cleaner". What has change in the last 30 years so that the water isn't fit for humans any longer? Or are they as safe as they ever were yet attitudes have changed?

World population in 1971 - 3.7 billion people.
World population in 2020 - 7.8 billion people.

My town population 1970 - 5,800
My town population 2020 - 32,500

More people, more urban sprawl, more everything. Locally we had an untreated lake with slides and piers built in for diving and jumping in. I never saw more than 50 folks there at once. Today its closed. The several water parks we have within an hour of us today are packed on hot days by 10am. You can't find a chair to put your stuff down and thousands of people are everywhere. Local creeks I played in and survived, now say stay out due to pollution, sewer overflow and runoff issues. My grandparents lived on some land in the country. In the 80's when I visited I could only see 3 other houses. Today it is a subdivision and golf course with hundreds of homes spaced tightly together. The creek and ponds I fished in are now unrecognizable and full of runoff and trash.

Back in my day...lol.
 
World population in 1971 - 3.7 billion people.
World population in 2020 - 7.8 billion people.

My town population 1970 - 5,800
My town population 2020 - 32,500

More people, more urban sprawl, more everything. Locally we had an untreated lake with slides and piers built in for diving and jumping in. I never saw more than 50 folks there at once. Today its closed. The several water parks we have within an hour of us today are packed on hot days by 10am. You can't find a chair to put your stuff down and thousands of people are everywhere. Local creeks I played in and survived, now say stay out due to pollution, sewer overflow and runoff issues. My grandparents lived on some land in the country. In the 80's when I visited I could only see 3 other houses. Today it is a subdivision and golf course with hundreds of homes spaced tightly together. The creek and ponds I fished in are now unrecognizable and full of runoff and trash.

Back in my day...lol.

Yes, this! I mean we can probably throw climate change in there a bit, but I think it's largely increased population, pollution, habitat change, deforestation (trees are nature's filters after all) etc...

When I was growing up people always swam in our local river. Now, you wouldn't dare in the summer due to algae blooms (which never happened back then).

Also, I wonder about water level change - the less water there is, the quicker it becomes contaminated. The stream that runs behind our house today only runs about <1-2' deep in the middle of the summer now. When MIL was growing up in the same area, it was 4-5' deep and a great swimming area. Heck, even when we bought the house 13 years ago, the stream was deeper, probably still 2-3' deep in summer. Suspected cause of change is climate change - our summers (here) are warmer and much drier than they used to be.
 
Fresh water, warm. There was even a case of a man who was using a neti pot with his tap water dying of it.
See, I knew there was a reason I have never given those things a try!
Note to everyone. You can even get it by showering or bathing if water enters your nasal passages in addition to using a neti pot or any nasal rinse that uses tap water vs distilled water if the ameba is present in the water.

Most if not all community water systems check during the treatment / filtering process for this ameba and other unfriendly microorganisms.

Again these ameba flourish in warm fresh water. Here in Florida, public water utilities "flush" the systems, where they add additional chlorine products during the year. They send out notices to customers before it is done since you may smell chlorine in the water and they warn you not to use this water in fish tanks during the flush schedule.

Dave
 
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I miss going out there. The main thing I remember is the parrots. It was nothing like AK. I'd go now, if they'd let me.
...but I'm not going to do what this dude did. pixiedust:
 

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