We have posted multiple times on this ill-conceived project. We say ill-conceived because water that is moved from point A to point B, will be missed at point A. We explain the simple cause of this problem, and it is people:
When nature’s balance is not upset by the interference of people, normally things take care of themselves. The Keystone lake system has been under stress for years due to excessive pumping by mines, agriculture and especially JEA. Because SJRWMD is giving away too much water, lake levels in the Keystone system have dropped, causing lake property values to do the same, raising the ire of lake dwellers. Water transference is seldom a good idea, and often brings problems along with the water.
Read the original article with photos here at Clay Today.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Keystone Lakes to benefit from District’s Black Creek Water Resource Development Project
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – The St. Johns River Water Management District is launching a project to increase recharge to the Upper Floridan aquifer in Northeast Florida.
The Governing Board voted Tuesday to approve the execution of a contract to begin the first phase of the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project, which consists of constructing a water pump station between Penney Farms and Camp Blanding off State Road 16 in Clay County.
“The Black Creek project is a result of years of collaboration between the District, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, local governments, utilities, and other interested stakeholders like the Save Our Lakes Organization,” said St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Mike Register. “The benefits of this project are far-reaching and speak directly to the District’s mission of ensuring adequate water supply for future generations in Florida.”
While the primary goal of the project is to increase recharge to the Upper Floridan aquifer, it will also improve water levels in lakes Brooklyn and Geneva in Keystone Heights. To accomplish this, water from Black Creek will be pumped through a 17-mile pipeline, eventually discharging into a passive treatment system that will remove color and minor nutrients. From there, the water will flow into Alligator Creek and ultimately Lake Brooklyn where recharge to the aquifer will occur through the lake bottom.
“As a Board member and former Senator representing Clay County, I am thrilled to see this project become a reality,” said St. Johns River Water Management District Board Chair Rob Bradley. “For those of us who grew up Clay County, we’ve seen firsthand the drastic changes in our lake levels over the past few decades. This project will help us address that and more, all while protecting Florida’s natural systems.”
While the amount of water pumped each day will vary, depending on the water level in Black Creek, the maximum amount of water diverted will not exceed 10 million gallons per day. To ensure the protection of natural resources within the creek, diversions will only be made when there is sufficient flow available.
Funding for the project was provided in the St. Johns River and Keystone Heights Lake Region Projects legislative appropriations over three years beginning in 2017. The total appropriation was more than $48 million, of which nearly $43.4 million was allocated to the Black Creek project. Additionally, north Florida utilities are contributing $19.2 million toward the project. Those utilities include Clay County Utility Authority, Gainesville Regional Utilities, St. Johns County Utilities, and JEA. The remaining balance will be provided from District funds. To learn more about the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project, visit www.sjrwmd.com/projects/#black-creek.
I was born and raised in Clay county as were many generations before me. I grew up hunting and fishing along the banks of Black Creek. My grandfather had a camp about a mile up the creek from Lake Asbury since the 50’s where my family would stay for days at the time. Some of the fondest of my childhood memories are setting bush hooks for catfish with my PaPa in a small cypress boat in the over hanging oak limbs along the creek. That was before there was a Seminole Village or any of the housing projects that’s popped up in the area. I certainly would hate to know that Black Creek would be harmed in some way by the diverting water to keystone Hights . And it’s had to change the eco system in the area of the Penny Farms bridge with all the construction on the West Bank. In other situations in the past when water was moved from one place to another,..it never ended well. Black Creek really doesn’t flood that often either if they’re depending on pumping over flow water. In my 65 years of living in Middleburg I’ve seen more than ten years pass in between floods. I’m sure people smarter than myself has planned and figured how this will help replenish the aquifer and put water back in the Keystone lakes. But there are multiple lakes in the Keystone area and ALL of them has been dropping for years. That only tells me that something underground has been changed by Mother Nature. I think It’s like trying to hold back the sea . And after all those millions are spent on this ill conceived project ,…in the end….Mother Nature will win.
Wayne, thanks for your thoughtful and intelligent reply. Water transfers are almost always bad. This one was done for political purposes initiated by residents around the lakes whose property values went down when JAX pulled so much water out of the aquifer below the lakes, causing a cone of depression. Pulling water out of Black Creel is not the solution and this project is just a waste of taxpayer money. The State of Florida has no plans to fix our water problems and they are just letting the springs and rivers go dry, slowly over the years.
Jim