FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Fort Lauderdale resident is expressing her frustration after she and her family woke up to find their neighborhood lake filled with untreated water, but city officials said they have determined how it ended up there.
Lake Melva sits in the middle of the neighborhood parallel to Northeast 18th Avenue, north of Sunrise Boulevard and off U.S. 1. The rectangular body of water is just a few blocks long and not much wider than a football field.
Residents like Ronit McAuley, who lives right on the water, said they use the lake for swimming and kayaking.
“Our kids go in; my husband goes scuba diving in the lake three days ago,” she said. “There’s a boat there, there’s kayaks over there, there’s a boat here. We enjoy it.”
McAuley said the water in the lake is usually pristine.
“For the last few months it’s been crystal, to the point where we have lights underwater, and you could see them,” she said.
But McAuley said that all changed on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, we woke up, our kids were like, ‘The water looks gross,'” she said.
Like many Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods, this one is in the middle of a large sewage pipe replacement project. City officials said the process is called dewatering, removing the groundwater from the soil to create the right conditions for the pipe project.
City officials said that groundwater is what’s going into the lake.
McAuley recorded video of the untreated water.
“They’re pumping all their excess underground water that’s not being treated or tested into the lake,” she said.
And now the lake, once clean and clear, is muddy and murky.
“I wouldn’t let my kids in there, my 4-year-old, my 9-year-old. My dog, I don’t want let my dog swim in there,” said McAuley.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, who lives in the area, said this is an unfortunate situation, and the city will look into it
Another city official said the contractor working on the dewatering project had obtained the appropriate permits and had installed a turbidity barrier to help prevent the groundwater from flowing into the lake.
However, the official said, area residents removed the barrier to allow access to wildlife. Doing so allowed the dumped water to flow more freely into the lake.
Thursday night, city officials said the contractor has completed the dewatering process, so area residents should not see any more groundwater in the lake.
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