 WILDWOOD,
Mo. -- To folks around Wildwood, it is nothing but freaky:
an entire 23-acre lake vanished in a matter of days, as
if someone pulled the plug on a bathtub.
Lake Chesterfield went down a sinkhole
this week, leaving homeowners in this affluent St. Louis
suburb wondering if their property values disappeared
along with their lakeside views.
"It's real creepy," said Donna
Ripp, who lives near what had been Lake Chesterfield.
"That lake was 23 acres - no small lake. And to
wake up one morning, drive by and it's gone?"
What once was an oasis for waterfowl
and sailboats was nothing but a muddy, crackled pit
outlined by rotting fish.
The sight had 74-year-old George English
scratching his head.
"It's disheartening, getting out
on your deck and seeing this," he said as he stood
next to wife, Betty, and the "lakeside" condominium
they bought in 1996 for its view. "One day it's
a beautiful lake and now, bingo, it's gone."
Some residents said they noticed that
the lake, after being swelled by torrential rains weeks
earlier, began falling last weekend. The Englishes said
they noticed the drop-off Monday.
By Wednesday, the manmade lake - normally
seven to 10 feet deep in spots - had been reduced to
a mucky, stinky mess.
David Taylor, a geologist who inspected
the lakebed Wednesday, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
that the sinkhole was formed when water eroded the limestone
deep underground and created pockets in the rock. The
sinkhole was "like a ticking time bomb."
The lake and surrounding housing development
date to the late 1980s. The development now includes
more than 670 condominiums and houses, about one-tenth
of them bordering the lake.
Because the lake is private property,
the subdivision's residents will have to cover the cost
of fixing it, probably through special property assessments.
George English expects it to cost $1,000 a household.
It is a price English said he is willing
to pay. He just wants the unsightly pit gone, either
by refilling it with water or dumping enormous amounts
of dirt into it to create green space or usable land.
"I think it'll come back again,"
he said. "You have to hope they can fix it." |
