It might not be white sand, but the bottom of Spring Lake in Holmes Beach is visible for the first time in months — if not years.
The lake, surrounded by homes between 68th and 70th streets, has been undergoing aeration since September from a pump system that increases oxygen circulation, balancing the salt and freshwater in the brackish system.
“You can tell by the clarity that the lake is improving,” Eran Wasserman, the city’s director of development services, said Dec. 18. “It could be other factors in addition to the system, but it appears to be working.”
The city’s decision to install the system sprung from complaints by lakeside residents who say the water quality never recovered following a sewage spill in October 2015, when about 22,000 gallons of waste leaked from a broken Manatee County sewer line.
The county closed its investigation in November 2015, when water tests showed lake contaminants within “normal range.”
Upon activation of the system, the lake became murky, smelly and more than 1,000 fish died, prompting complaints.
However, several weeks after the city started running the system 24/7, the lake started to clear and the smell dissipated.
Mark Kennedy has owned property on Spring Lake for more than two years, but has been visiting the area for 10 years. He said, following the 2015 spill, the lake was “noticeably damaged,” but now it looks better than it has in longer than he can remember.
“I think we are seeing a resurgence of life in there,” he said Dec. 17. “I look forward to the day I can put a chicken wing on a string and pull up a blue crab and feel safe about eating it. I think that day is coming.”
The city will conduct water quality tests in January 2020 to determine the extent of water quality improvement.