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Sun City Center Activist Says County Put Sewage In Lake

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By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2008

Updated: 11/24/2008 02:37 pm

SUN CITY CENTER - Residents are complaining Hillsborough County's water department has pumped raw sewage from a line break into a lake where hundreds of people have waterfront homes.

Water department officials say they thought they were pumping groundwater into a storm drain so they could excavate a leaking sewer line buried 17 feet underground. The drain flows to Middle Lake, where there are 103 homes, according to Dave Brown, a Sun City Center resident and activist.

"Residents fish and boat on the lake," Brown wrote in an e-mail to The Tampa Tribune. "The water is used for lawn irrigation. That means that we'll be spreading raw sewage water on our lawns. With Thanksgiving coming, that means that visiting grandchildren are going to be playing on lawns coated with raw sewage."

The water department agrees the water in the storm drain has a strong smell but won't know whether it is contaminated until samples are tested.

"I understand there is high hydrogen sulfide content in groundwater," said Michelle Van Dyke, spokeswoman for the county Water Resources Department. "That would make it smell like sewage."

County water workers discovered a leak last week while doing camera inspections on a 12-inch sewer line along Del Webb Boulevard, Van Dyke said. Because the water table in that area is high, groundwater had to be pumped out before the leaking section of pipe could be excavated, she said.

Workers were beginning to dig out the pipe this morning, Van Dyke said.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303.

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