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Large sewage spill hits Lake Parker in Lakeland

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage water have been dumped into the lake.

LAKELAND, Fla. – A broken sewer line has dumped an estimated 260,000 gallons of raw sewage into the west side of Lake Parker.

It happened near the intersection of Valencia Street and Lake Parker Drive.

Crews were able to stop the leak and make repairs Friday.

Original estimates of raw sewage dumped into the lake ranged between 200,000-400,000 gallons, but that estimate was upped to 500,000 gallons Friday morning by Bill Anderson, director of the city's water utilities.

Later Friday, Anderson again said the city had revised its estimates to closer to 260,000 gallons, based upon a flow rate estimate of 400 gallons per minute.

For perspective, an Olympic-sized swimming pool can hold roughly 600,000 gallons of water.

It's believed city workers hit a sewer line while removing tree stumps in the area yesterday, Anderson said.

The tree stumps were being removed to make way for a wider sidewalk.

It's unclear if city workers were aware of the sewer line running under the area.

Watch: Click or tap here to watch 10News reporter Josh Sidorowicz survey the area

The Florida Department of Health issued an advisory following the spill.

Greg Chronis, who lives nearby, showed 10News video he recorded of the sewage water spewing out for nearly 12 hours on Thursday.

"This is really disturbing for us," he said. "I don't know how they're going to clean it but I hope they do more than just repair it."

While Anderson said the ruptured line should be repaired by the end of day Friday, getting the sewage water out of the lake could take a week or more because the city won't be pumping it out.

Instead the sewage water will be left to dissipate on its own, according to Anderson.

"The lake is so large and nature is such a wonderful cleaner or cleanser of this type of thing," he said. "There's really no way to separate it from the lake water."

Floating booms are keeping the untreated water mostly contained to the west end of the lake where the spill originated, Anderson said.

Warning signs posted along the shoreline of the lake are there as a precaution, according to Anderson, until the city gets results from water samples taken from eight different areas around the lake.

Anderson said the city has notified the Florida Department of Environmental Protections, which could launch its own investigation into the incident.

Chronis isn't pleased.

"Everybody I've talked to who own property on the lake... are just pissed off," Chronis said. "They're not very happy about it at all."

10News reporter Josh Sidorowicz contributed to this report.

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