Developer cleared of polluting

But two opponents of the Cypress Creek project bring new allegations.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP, Times Staff Writer
Published August 3, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - Following complaints last week that construction at Cypress Creek Town Center was polluting the creek, state and federal officials this week said they found no wrongdoing on the developer's part.

But the complainants, Clay Colson and Hank King, followed up Thursday with fresh allegations.

Last week, based on photographs taken by Hank King, whose property is next to the proposed mall, the mall's opponents said construction work on the site was causing a haze in the creek's water.

The corps investigated Tuesday but cleared the developer, the Richard E. Jacobs Group, of pollution charges. The corps will now review a land clearing at a wetland within the mall site, to see if it's within the limits of the corps permit, said Eric Summa of the Army Corps of Engineers.

"We were not able to confirm the allegation regarding the turbidity on site," Summa said Wednesday. "We're looking for discharge causing poor quality of water. We couldn't find that."

The federal officials' findings echoed those from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, known as Swiftmud.

Swiftmud inspected the creek on Friday and Monday after the complaints, but found "no turbidity," said Robyn Hanke, the agency's spokeswoman. Turbidity means cloudiness in the water.

But the agency decided to post officials at the mall site at least twice a week to maintain an inspection routine.

"We'll keep an eye on this," Hanke said.

On Thursday, Swiftmud got more calls from King and Colson, some of it in language that was "not polite," Hanke said.

"We had been out to the site this morning," she said. "We saw no turbidity."

But, following Thursday's complaints, a Swiftmud official met King at the site and inspected it. They found a silt screen that had been breached due to rain, Hanke said, and told the contractor to fix it.

Hanke said Swiftmud would send inspectors to the site again today.

Hanke said Swiftmud inspectors did find a mud-bogging camp to the north of the Cypress Creek Town Center property that may have played a part in the pollution.

"We did continue to see turbidity at the mud-bogging site," Hanke said Thursday.

Colson said Thursday that King had videotaped construction workers at the site unloading discharge into the creek.

King did not reply to a call for comment.

In June, Colson and Dan Rametta, of the Citizens for Sanity group, sued the corps for allowing the Jacobs Group to pave 56 acres of wetlands at the site. They later dropped the lawsuit. The Sierra Club has threatened to sue, too.

Pamala Vazquez, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the complainants had contacted her agency last week and again on Wednesday.

The DEP referred the case to Swiftmud last week, and may do so again, unless it decide the new complaints fall under the DEP's jurisdiction, Vazquez said.

Chuin-Wei Yap can be reached at 813 909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 2, 2007, 21:37:30]