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Highlands Today

Spring Lake Hopes To Lift Injunction

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: February 6, 2008

SPRING LAKE — When is a sinkhole a blessing in disguise? When it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, but saves millions.

That's what happened at the Spring Lake pump station, when 19 feet of foundation eroded over 24 years.

"The sinkhole actually became a blessing for the (Spring Lake Improvement District)," said Joe DeCerbo, district manager, "because if any more land under the pipes was lost, water would have gone under the pilings and caused the entire structure to collapse, with incredible damage."

The entire community could have flooded, said Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford.

When Spring Lake was created in 1971, the developer, Westinghouse Corp., dug canals behind the homes to drain the subdivision. Those canals drain stormwater into the pumping station, which lifts the water into Arbuckle Creek.

"It discharges a substantial amount of water to Arbuckle Creek," Ford said.

So much, in fact, that when Tropical Storm Ernesto came through in 2006, Spring Lake was flooded because a court order prevented the pumps from working as much as they needed to. Sandra Tyrell, who owns Lakeside Stables, had convinced a judge two years earlier that Spring Lake's water was trespassing when it flowed over her land.

A dual plan was developed by DeCerbo, the district staff and Craig A. Smith Engineering to repair the sinkhole erosion under the pump station, and to meet the challenges set out in the injunction, DeCerbo wrote in the February issue of the Spring Lake Breeze.

"Over the years, the erosion of the land has caused the water to go south and 'trespass' over (Tyrell's) land," DeCerbo wrote. "We have now created a solution."

Rock berms have diverted the water to the north. That also keeps floodwaters from violating the South Florida Water Management permit.

"Our legal counsel can now go back to the courts and request the injunction be lifted. We are hopeful this will take place in the next 90 days," DeCebo wrote. "It should be mentioned that the landowner to the south, Sandy Tyrell, has been extremely cooperative and has stated her pleasure with the berm. It is her hope to continue to stay on her land and live in harmony with the district. We believe that can now happen."

Telephone calls Tuesday to Tyrell's home and Lakeside Stables were not answered.

"Preventing flooding is a good thing," Ford said. Most Spring Lake homes have their own septic systems, so flood waters moving over septic drain fields would eventually send human effluent into Lake Istokpoga.

"We applaud that," Ford said. In addition, Spring Lake has put in a new reclamation plant that will store water and eventually send water to South Florida for Everglades restoration.

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