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Reg Pasco

From flawless to frightful

The demise of a canal has left residents in a once-pristine neighborhood in Port Richey's Regency Park frustrated, angry and with nowhere to turn.

By Mallory Simon
Published June 12, 2006

PORT RICHEY - When Rick and Susan Ouellette went looking to buy their first home eight years ago, the view sealed the deal.

Behind the house in Regency Park, they could fish in a sparkling deep blue canal. They could join their neighbors in afternoon paddleboat rides.

Now they don't dare get that close to the water.

The canal has degenerated into an eyesore, dark and dingy with hardly a fish in sight. Remnants of cinder blocks and cement sea walls litter the canal's edge. Bad stuff oozes from the canal's floor.

What was once a sight to brag about, the Ouellettes say, is now a source of frustration and embarrassment. They won't even venture to the edge of their property, which is breaking off into the canal at nearly a foot each year. What was once a gentle slope to the edge of the water has become a dangerous, jagged dropoff.

And nobody knows why.

"We didn't buy this house with a bank caving in," Susan Ouellette said. "We had a beautiful house with a view that was unbelievable. Now we are afraid our bench is going to fall in with the rest of the land. It was our first house, and now it's falling to pieces."

The canal was built nearly 40 years ago. The most obvious deterioration began two or three years ago. The Ouellettes began calling everyone they could think of who might help, from county government to statewide agencies.

No luck.

"All we want is for someone to come and survey the property," Rick Ouellette said. "We've called everyone - environmental protection, the health department and everyone in between they've passed us around to. All they do is pass the buck."

Despite the fact that several county departments said others were responsible for the canal, when Commissioner Steve Simon stepped in to look into the matter he discovered the canal is privately owned. It's possible that the canal, which may have originally been built for drainage of a nearby subdivision, has never been cleaned or maintained.

The Ouellettes were shocked to learn the county had no responsibility for the waterway. For almost a year, they have been calling for help and they said nobody ever told them it was privately owned.

"We figured since we get all of our permits from the county, they would be in charge of the canal, too," Susan Ouellette said. "Now who do we go to? Who can help us?"

The answer is just as uncertain as why the land breaks off in the first place.

Simon said at this point all he knows is that the canal was owned by a Jasmine Lakes developer, but he promised to keep investigating.

Neighbors hope for relief. Keeping their lawns neat and taking care of the back yard has become dangerous.

Bonnie McLaughlin, who lives across the canal from the Ouellettes, has the same problems with her back yard. She said on her side at least 6 feet of her land has disappeared. Bonnie said her husband, Marty, is proof that something evil lurks in the canal.

"My husband was trying to mow the lawn and he fell in the canal. When he got out, his ears were swelling up and he ended up with an ear infection," she said. "God help you if you go into the water. You don't know what kind of disease you could pick up."

The McLaughlins used to enjoy paddleboating down the canal, but now they say, there is no way they would get into the water.

"There was a point where there were green blobs in the water," Bonnie McLaughlin said. "You would see birds just walking on it, as if it was a solid."

The Ouellettes said the state Department of Environmental Protection, the county Health Department and the Southwest Florida Water Management District tested the canal water, which showed three unknown chemicals. But spokesmen for those agencies told the Times they could not find records of such tests.

In addition to the water itself, the slanting of the land has created its own problems, the neighbors said.

The Ouellettes, the McLaughlins and others on the canal used to mow their lawn without a problem, but now mowing the edges is like walking on a tightrope, they said.

"You have to use a weed-whacker now on the edges when you go down there, otherwise you're going to tip over into that mess," Rick Ouellette said, motioning into the canal. "We used to have no problems at all. That's how we started noticing this problem. All of the sudden, the land just starts to tilt until it breaks off again."

The neighbors have tried everything in their power to keep the land from shifting. They've built short walls, added concrete and truckloads of dirt, but they all meet the same fate and become part of the pile growing at the bottom of the canal.

More than anything, the Ouellettes and their neighbors are frustrated that the reason they bought their home doesn't exist anymore.

"This was a picture-perfect first home, literally. I sent pictures all the time to everyone boasting about the view," Susan Ouellette said. "It was a perfect thinking spot, where you could sit and watch the sunset. Now, when you look at it, the only thing you think is how much more land is going to disappear."

[Last modified June 12, 2006, 07:27:22]