Trinity residents flood commission with complaints

6:52 PM, Jul 24, 2012   |    comments
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Streets remain flooded in Pasco's Thousand Oaks neighborhood, weeks after Tropical Storm Debby dumped inches of rain.
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Pasco County, Florida - The video shows people walking down the road through knee-deep water. You might think it's flooding from June's Tropical Storm Debby, but all this sloshing took place in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood after a rain storm just last week.

Thousand Oaks and the nearby Trinity Oaks neighborhoods are not supposed to flood and that's why on Tuesday county commissioners were flooded with complaints.

"Something has to be done," Trinity Oaks homeowner Ron Levi told commissioners. "You can't just keep throwing the buck from one political place to another political place."

Homeowners pleaded with commissioners to come up with a plan that would prevent damaging flood waters from entering their homes.

"This is a travesty. It's been allowed to happen and allowed to continue," said Cortney King who lives in Thousand Oaks.

Flooding has been a problem in the Trinity area for about a decade and over the years the county has spent about $2 million on water flow studies and larger culverts to help move out water.

Last year, Pasco also asked the Southwest Water Management District for permission to dredge a canal through what the county believes is an already disturbed wetland, but SWIFTMUD denied that request.

However, leadership at SWIFTMUD has since changed, and county commissioners hoping for a different result directed staff to renew the county's dredging request.

"We're going to continue to push where we can push," said Commission chairwoman Ann Hildebrand.