For the last four years in Marion County, officials have been brainstorming for ways to plug the problem.

"There's something alive in there," said Office of Greenways and Trails Spokesperson Mickey Thomason. "It's right back in there."

If Thomason sounds surprised by this, it's because the murky water is filled with chemicals, grease and oil.

"Obviously this system ended up here because back when it was done they were probably looking for the quickest most economical way of dealing with this issue," said Thomason.

The issue of where to put the run-off water that since the 60's has flown from a 52 inch pipe that the city built on State Road 40.

"It goes into what's known as half mile creek, and it enters into the Silver River," said Ocala City Engineer Bruce Phillips.

Right now, the city is almost ready to bid for construction of their retention ponds.

But, Thomason says the place where the retention pond would go is Karst or full of cracks and voids. There's potential for leaks and sinkholes, which means that polluted water could go directly into the springs.

"That's the other great concern besides seepage is having a sink hole form and potentially having this discharge go straight into one of the springs," said Thomason.

Marion County Commissioner Charlie Stone says the county is looking at a filtration system.

"It's almost a case where everyone wants to help solve it, and help come up with a solution but nobody has the funding sources to address it," said Stone.