River Country

[TIdoublegaER]

Ok, I could only get the abstracts of the articles for free...so here is what I found on the internet about it though:


Q: Is it safe to swim in Florida lakes? Amoebas have been known to infect children and then some die? -- Thanks, LeRoy

A: Yes, unfortunately, there have been a few tragic deaths caused by amoebas in freshwater lakes in Florida. And no, Florida state health officials have advised against swimming in freshwater areas until it cools off.

In July 2002, two boys in the Orlando area were affected after swimming in warm lakes, where they got the infections. One boy, 12, died after being infected by an amoeba (a microscopic organism) in the Conway chain of lakes. Being infected by this kind of amoeba is almost always fatal, as it is said to travel to the brain and not respond to antibiotics. Another boy, 15, was doing better as of this writing after battling a bacterial infection caught at Lake Talmadge. He reportedly had a cut, where the bacteria may have entered his body.

These aren't the first people to be infected this way -- you may hear about such cases almost every year -- but the infection is pretty rare. According to health reports, only 150 cases of the amoeba infection have been reported (18 in Florida from 1962-2000), and there have been only 50 cases of the 15-year-old's bacterial infection. Florida may see a greater percentage of these kinds of infections because these organisms thrive in the warm muck of the lake bottoms -- and people seek the swimming holes to get a reprieve from the heat.

Florida state health officials have advised against going into Florida freshwater areas until temperatures drop. If you must go into a lake, according to the Florida Department of Health, "wear nose clips, avoid stirring up sediment and avoid swimming near lake bottoms, where organisms are more concentrated." Please see a PDF file for more information about water-borne illnesses in Florida and their symptoms, found at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Web site.

 

[MELSMICE]

I remember talking to a CM one year while at RC. He said that the RC "lake area" is actually a chlorinated "pool" that has a green bottom to make it look like lake water. He said the "pool" was emptied once a year, scrubbed clean & then refilled.

Don't know is this is true or not but that is what the CM told us.

 

[meowthew2]

Amoebas in Disney water have been a problem for years now. It was in August 1980 that a 10-year-old boy died from an amoebic infection after spending the day at River Country...

 

[space42]

Originally posted by MELSMICE
I remember talking to a CM one year while at RC. He said that the RC "lake area" is actually a chlorinated "pool" that has a green bottom to make it look like lake water. He said the "pool" was emptied once a year, scrubbed clean & then refilled.

Don't know is this is true or not but that is what the CM told us.

Yes it is a seperate "pool" that is treated. The water from RC can flow via a spill way into Bay lake but not the other way around.
There are some good pictures that I will link to that show the spill way and a waterless RC.

Here is RC in its current empty state.. from 08/02
http://www.disneypix.com/Recreation/River/2002b/RC0802-02.htm

Good picture of the spill way.
http://www.disneypix.com/Recreation/River/2001a/River0505-02.htm


The last comment from Disney was that RC was closed due to lower attendance and it could be opened back up at any time.
However with more and more attractions closing and going to seasonal status I doubt that this will be any time soon.

 

[Another Voice]

There is some concern about the various critters that live in Florida's lakes, but it's a limited concern at WDW. The water system is designed to keep water continually moving through the property as a way of controlling flooding. Amoebas and such thrive in stagnate water.

And the Cast Member was wrong, Fort Wilderness is built on Bay Lake which is a natural lake (and Discovery Island is a natural Island as well). The Seven Seas Lagoon was manmade, but it uses the same water as everyone else. In fact all of the water systems in the Parks from the Jungle Cruise and the Rivers in America to the Lagoon at Epcot are all part of it as well. All of the Magic Kingdom Resorts opened with large beach area (remember it was originally called the Grand Floridian Beach Resort) and promoted swimming – proximity to boat launches and such has nothing to do with closing all the beaches.

Water from Bay Lake is drawn through a filter system (to keep out the leaves, trout and other goodies) and then circulated through River Country's water slides and main swimming hole. This place was built in the early seventies and this was a common practice – many of the larger water parks across the county continue to use natural water sources. There is a spill way back into Bay Lake, but this mostly so that rain water can flow into the water system and not through the camp ground.

The bigger concern for water quality is really urban runoff. When WDW was built it was way, way outside of town. It had its own streams, its own wells and thousands of undeveloped acres and its own very large water treatment system. But with it was also a much smaller development than it is now.

WDW has become a pretty big city. During a good summer day it can have over a quarter million people on property. That's a lot of oil to runoff the roads, trash to spill down the storm drains, a lot of flushing toilets, and all the other urban and industrial waste that would plague a city of that size.

WDW had a very advanced water treatment system, but the hotel and park growth spurt overwhelmed what it could handle. So instead of trying to treat all the water on property, Disney tries to do some basic pre-treatment of just the sewage. All those chemicals, gas and oil is now simply allowed to run into the lakes and streams.

There was a very large plan to replace the water treatment system again which would have returned the water quality on property back to its formal levels. A significant amount of land was purchased and construction plans were made. But – well we'll short hand this and just say budget cuts. It's just cheaper to change the name of hotel and rope off the beaches instead of fixing the problem.



As a footnote, one of the plans Disney was working on to build large ponds that would use fast growing plants to purify the water. The plants would be harvested and then mulched to produce methane gas. The gas would them be used in the turbines that Disney uses to generate electricity and chilled water for the Magic Kingdom area. It would have been a prototype for similar plants in small towns and business across the country. But Eisner deleted funding for the program although you can still see some PR pictures in all the "environmentality" marketing stuff they put out. It's cheaper to look good than the be good.

 

[colleen costello]

Another Voice, thanks for the update. Some of my best memories from childhood were made at River Country. I will continue to hope it comes back! I can remember my parents leaving me there (I was about 12) to swim and meet them later. This was in the glorious '70's before parents were afraid to let their kids go to the mailbox alone... I also remember swimming every summer at the FW beach. They had a lifeguard and a big float you could swim to; I think it even had a slide. Aah, the good old days...

 

[A Mickeyfan]

There is also no swimming allowed in the lakes around the resort not only for amebia's...but there are also Alligators there as well!!!! I have seen them. No they weren't in River Country...but they are in the lakes & on the Golf Course's....it is just part of Florida...and they are all over Florida!!!! Disney does what it can about controlling them but it is a part of Florida's natural habbitat.

 

[rangebob]

Another thing that I don't believe is that the wood supports are totally rotten. I'm over at Disney and FW alot. I've seen workers there before and they are alot of the time on top of the mountain at RC. I know that you said that it was coming to you 15th hand but I doubt that they would allow workers on top of the mountain looking at different things but won't allow a demolition crew near it when they don't even touch the structure other than with heavy equipment.