Health department checks Shingle Creek water for sewage, bacteria after Irma flooding

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Public health workers are waiting on test results to see why floodwaters caused by Hurricane Irma in Osceola County smell so bad.

Workers have taken samples in two areas to see whether sewage might have made it into people's neighborhoods.

People living near Shingle Creek have been complaining to the county, so the county brought in the department of health.

The problem? Shingle Creek didn’t just overflow a little bit.

It overflowed a lot.

The water has begun to recede, but some streets are still flooded for hundreds of feet.

Resident David Goffman thought he had dodged damage but instead, the light of day proved floodwater was too much for a massive oak tree near his home.

“There’s been two feet of water completely over the banks, around the houses,” Goffman said.

The water's real consequences could be worse than losing a tree.

Goffman and his neighbors depend on well water and the Department of Health said there's a very real possibility what came up out of Shingle Creek was contaminated with sewage.

The department said it’s common after bad storms.

"There is a smell. You can smell (it) in the air,” Goffman said. “I just thought that that's from everything saturated."

Some neighbors say it smells like sewage.

%

%%

%

Others compare the smells to dead fish, but either way, residents want it gone and want to know what’s in the water.

The health department doesn’t have the results yet from Shingle Creek, or from another spot that’s raising concerns in Buena Ventura Lakes.

For Groffman and his neighbors, the hope is that sewage and bacteria are not slowly seeping into the water supply.

%

%%

%

Cox Media Group