The swimming pool at a Florida high school has been shut down indefinitely after a large number of iguanas on the property forced the Department of Health and the School District of Palm Beach County to close the pool for safety reasons.
Scripps News West Palm Beach visited the pool and found dozens of iguanas of different sizes sunbathing on the bleachers and deck, which was covered in the reptile's excrement. We also spotted large amounts of their feces along the edges of the pool near the bleachers.
"What they leave behind is definitely gross," Lake Worth Beach resident Alyssia Jaume said. She describes the iguana invasion at Lake Worth High School as an oasis for the reptiles.
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It's an issue Jaume said she experiences in her backyard daily.
"They like to eat orchids too," Jaume said. "I've seen them climbing along the fence, and I've seen their excrement here by the pool."
Officials with the School District of Palm Beach County said despite their efforts to maintain the pool at Lake Worth High School, the pool's filtration and chemical systems were not able to keep up with contaminants by the iguanas.
"We're all having to spend an incredible amount of damage that iguanas are causing to government infrastructure," said Lake Worth Beach Commissioner Reinaldo Diaz. "They're everywhere and they're not going anywhere."
Diaz said the city has spent more than $100,000 in iguana prevention infrastructure.
"Unfortunately, they're a problem that's here to stay," Diaz said.
The city has put up climb-resistant barriers to prevent the reptiles from climbing up power poles and damaging the lines since he said one animal can take out an entire block of power.
"They're a bigger priority than maybe people realize," Diaz said. "Everything that we put out that makes us more resilient against storms we also have to think about making it resilient against animals, especially iguanas."
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The city has also put up electric fencing in areas after an iguana caused a large-scale outage to the city's electric utility nearly two years ago, which left over 1,400 people without power.
"That doesn't even factor in people's backyards what they're doing to people's residential pools, the amount of flowers and plants that they eat," Diaz said. "All that stuff is racking up a bill."
He's encouraging residents to make sure the trees and landscaping are trimmed away from power poles as iguanas are known to climb.
The Lake Worth Community High School pool is district-owned, and they said there are no plans to reopen it.
This story was originally published by Joel Lopez at Scripps News West Palm Beach.
