HOLMES BEACH, Fla. — A group of Holmes Beach residents are raising concerns about the water quality in their backyard, and they’re not talking about red tide.
- Homes around Spring Lake affected
- 23,000 gallons of raw sewage dumped into lake in 2015
- Canals, pipes closed off, but water quality has not improved
"Everyone’s upset. These people are upset, those people over there are upset," explains resident Boyd Grayson as he points from house to house.
There's no pleasant way to describe it. The water behind Grayson’s house, which sits on Spring Lake, is gross.
Its condition is understandable when you think about what made the water brown in the first place.
“[The pipe] dumped 23,000 gallons of raw sewage into the lake,” explained Grayson.
When the city's sewage system broke in 2015, the canals and pipes that connected the lake to other bodies of water were closed off. That solved one problem, but left those who live on the lake wanting more to be done.
“I think [the lake] needs to be dredged, ” said resident Karen Tuell.
Over the last three years, the quality of the water has not changed. It still has that brown murky look it did back in 2015.
There is one major difference, however, that Boyd says makes living on the lake not quite the same.
“There’s no birds, there’s no fish, there’s no crabs," he said. "There's no wildlife anymore."
Between the city and the county, Boyd says no one has taken the blame for the sewage spill.
The topic of the lake's condition will be up for discussion and public comment during a city commission meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.