20/20 won't buy Lehigh Acres sinkhole

Committee chair forced to break 5-5 tie vote.

After a number of conversations, presentations, considerations and extended public commentary, the full Conservation 20/20 committee gave Lehigh Acres residents the same answer it did two years ago.

The committee voted against pursuing acquisition of the Lehigh Spring, a 200-foot deep, 2.5-million-year-old sinkhole known to locals as the bottomless lake or Leeland Lake.

Experts in anthropology, archaeology, ecology, hydrology and other fields of study all came out in support of the committee buying the land to stop any other construction from further contaminating the lake, which they feel has significant historical impact...