WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. – It took months for Winter Springs City leaders to find and select a suitable contractor to clean out six major creeks and years for the City to find funding for the massive project, but the work has finally begun.
Howell Creek, Bear Creek, Sheoah Creek, Gee Creek, No Name Creek, and Little Howell Creek have been notoriously littered with fallen trees, vegetation, sand, muck, trash, and other debris.
The creeks used to be a major asset during heavy rainstorms, carrying floodwater through and away from the city. Instead, during Hurricane Ian and storms thereafter, floodwater became trapped in the creeks and rose above the banks and into homes.
In April, FDOT initiated the first creek cleanout and culvert repair work over Gee Creek.
But Winter Springs couldn’t continue the cleanout until a federal grant was secured and a contractor was selected.
“Thanks to a grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS), contractors will begin the essential task of clearing debris from five separate creeks to restore functionality and improve the smooth flow of stormwater throughout the City,” the City wrote on its website. “Under the terms of the grant, the NRCS will contribute up to 100% of the project’s total cost as part of City’s hurricane Milton recovery efforts. The project will start with work along Sheoah Creek, followed by Gee, No Name, Little Howell, and Bear Creeks, and is expected to take several weeks to complete.”
You can find the City’s creek maps by clicking here.
Winter Springs City Commissioner Victoria Bruce said, “Inspections of local creeks identified over 30,000 linear feet of affected waterways across six major creeks.”
Commissioners recently voted to double the monthly stormwater fee to pay for $12 million worth of outstanding stormwater projects.
According to City of Winter Springs spokesperson Matt Reeser, city commissioners are discussing using the additional stormwater fee revenue to fund yearly cleanouts of the creeks.
He said creeks must be clear because they funnel large amounts of stormwater into Lake Jessup.
“Without these creeks [cleared], it would be really, really, detrimental to the city for stormwater,” Reeser said. “We rely on these to take heavy rains and hurricanes. This is the first line of defense when it comes to flooding.”
Reeser said crews will spend the next month or so cutting down and dragging out vegetation, debris, and trash, and then bring in heavy machinery to remove built-up sediment, all so water can flow freely.
He’s already seeing relief.
“We get rains in the afternoon, people get nervous, they lived through Ian, we had homes flooded, we had people evacuated,” Reeser said. “What we’re trying to do is show people this is what we’re doing and maybe alleviate some of those fears. I’ve said it before - you’re never 100% going to stop flooding. But you can do everything in your power to make sure that you mitigate that damage. And that’s what we’re trying to do. And a big part of it, too, is we just want people to understand that we hear them. We’re taking care of this.”