TEXAS TOWNSHIP (WKZO AM/FM) — The Department of Environmental Quality held a public hearing on plans to drain flooded Eagle and Crooked Lakes into Portage Creek, but some of the property owners downstream are not at all happy about the plan.
The proposal is to drain the lakes, and in effect, the entire water table down to Bass Lake and the Al Sabo preserve and then into the creek. The area has seen more rainfall in the past few years than it has seen in over a century, and that is the cause of the high water.
Property owners on Bass Lake say they have worked hard to keep it free of invasive species and pristine and this will ruin it and threaten their homes. They may seek legal recourse if a permit is issued.
Boy Scout officials worry about the impact on the Preserve and on their camp.
Engineers say their plan is designed to avoid such problems. Homeowners in the flooded area are getting desperate, some saying they have already spent thousands trying to save their homes, some saying they may have already lost them.
Others saying their biggest investment is tied up in a home that is threatened.
The DEQ says the listen to the public comment, but their decisions are based on the actual technical plan and whether it will do what it says it will do and do no harm to others.
Residents can still submit written comments for another ten days. There is no specific date set for a decision on the permit.
