Jake Varn News Today

The appearance of machinery inside an industrial building in west Lake Mary suggests Frankenstein’s birthplace, or maybe a vintage supercomputer or even a hazardous waste incinerator – which is kind of what it is. It’s not intuitive that the basic function of the machinery is so commonplace as purifying and providing 3 million gallons of drinking water daily to 17,000 residents of Lake Mary. ...

Sanford is considering requiring anyone who causes or becomes aware of a pollutant or hazardous substance — such as gasoline, oil or toxic chemicals — being dumped on the ground or into a water body, to quickly notify the city and the state’s environmental agency, along with other authorities. It’s an effort to prevent the contamination of groundwater sources, including the Floridan Aquifer, ...

Jason Wiles, a beachside resident--and the husband of an assistant county attorney--faces a felony charge in a confrontation with a neighbor.

A heavy truck toting a robust machine arrived a few months ago in a quiet Lake Mary neighborhood of medical offices, small shops and the city’s fire station No. 37. At the back of the mobile drilling rig, workers lowered a steel snout to the ground and bored a pair of holes several hundred feet into the earth and into the Floridan Aquifer. It was a renewed effort to probe for the 1,4-dioxane ...

Such debates are happening across the country, bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic moving key services such as healthcare, grocery shopping and government processes online, and now by preparations for a massive federal program to close the digital divide. About a fifth of the country lacks internet access, particularly in poor, rural and Native American communities, according to public records.