COURTESY : Ocala Star Banner - the Reporter
Published December 4, 2003
BY BILL KOCH
The Reporter

THE VILLAGES - At least one golfer wants to know what keeps happening to the water in a 5-acre pond near the first hole of the Nancy Lopez Legacy Golf Course.

A sinkhole has drained the pond at least three times in the last six weeks.

"Two weeks ago it was filled up," said Ed Becker. "Last week the water was gone. It evaporated. I want to know what they're doing to fix it. It's just a matter of curiosity."

Tractors and trucks have been parked on the course's greens for several weeks as crews attempt to patch the hole. The lake refills one day, and then the water quickly disappears a few days later, witnesses reported.

It's not the sinkhole specifically that bothers Becker and other area residents. It's how they learned about the sinkhole and workers' efforts to repair the surface and the pond — which is, by looking out their backdoor windows. He said their community's media rarely report important but potentially negative-sounding news.

"I want reports and information about what's going on," Becker said. "I just want some answers. I resent (not being told what's going on.) I'm not a trouble-maker. But we're entitled to it."

Several dozen sinkholes have opened suddenly in The Villages in the last few years; some have threatened nearby homes, and others have rapidly drained what representatives of The Villages call "depressions."

Homeowners, who sometimes pay an additional $40,000 for water-front property, have also complained when they discover the retention ponds in their backyards disappearing.

More than two dozens sinkholes were reported to have opened in The Villages during the summer of 2002, the end of a record-length three-year drought. Sinkholes drained most of Lake Oakleigh and Lake Huntington in The Villages of Marion that summer.

Nicholas Andreyev, engineer for The Villages, said at the time that Florida residents need to get used to sinkholes, especially in this portion of the state.

"Basically they’re everywhere," he said. "There’s hundreds that have occurred with the change of weather."

Andreyev blames near-to-the-surface underground limestone ridges for making the terrain in west-central Florida sinkhole prone. Heavy rain increases the likelihood of the sinkholes by putting pressure on the ground. 

The incidence of sinkholes generally declines during fall and winter months after the rainy season has ended. While some sinkholes have threatened homes, Andreyev said homeowners shouldn't worry since homes are built on higher and sturdier foundations.

The drought, which ended last year, pushed underground water levels to historic lows, fueling sinkhole fears.

Most of The Villages is in the northern most portion of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which is a more "spongy terrain," water district officials have said.

"The further you move north in this district the closer the aquifer moves to the surface," said water district spokesman Michael Molligan. "To the north you start getting more sinkhole activity because the clay confining layer is thin enough to be breached. The thinner the layer, the more possibility you have of sinkholes opening. But it’s hard to predict with any accuracy where they are going to happen."