BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS—The March meeting of the Save Our Lakes Organization became heated as members argued over a three-foot wide ditch that is draining water from one of the lake’s lobes into another node.
Because of dropping water levels, the lake’s original single water body has devolved into six separate lobes. The main lobe, on the eastern section of the lakebed, stretches from Keystone Beach Park east along State Road 100 and County Road 214. A center lobe approximates Nelson’s Point and Forest Street. Two lobes to the west approximate State Road 21 near the Bradford-Clay County line and Geneva Springs Condominiums. The fifth lobe lies between Alderman Road and Breezy Point Road West, in the southern portion of the lakebed. A smaller sixth lobe lies east of the main water body at the county boat ramp near Lake Geneva’s Fifth Street.
Save Our Lakes President Vivian Katz James said she came across the ditch while touring Geneva’s dry lakebed with St. Johns River Water Management officials. James said the trench stretches from the center lobe to the main water body.
“It was fairly obvious that someone has enhanced it,” Katz said of the trench. “Some of our members are irate because the water level has dropped more than a foot (in the center lobe).”
James added that the trench will ultimately make no difference in the main lobe’s discernable water level.
One Alderman Road resident said neighbors sandbagged the trench, only to find later the sandbags were removed, and the trench dug deeper.
James said she did not know for sure who dug the ditch, but suspected the digger was present at the March Save Our Lakes meeting.
James told members during the meeting to stop digging in the lakebed, either to enhance the trench or to block it.
“Don’t take matters into your own hands,” she told residents who were angry about the trench. “Stand down and stop digging.”
County Commissioner Betsy Condon was also at the March SOLO meeting and showed a video she had recorded of the trench.
She described the meeting as heated and appealed to Lake Geneva residents to stop arguing and stop digging.
“Arguing with our neighbors is not going to be the solution,” she said after the meeting. “Everybody needs to stop messing with the lakebed.”
Condon added that residents are also frustrated by a perceived slow response to the trench by Florida Department of Environmental Protection officials, adding that some observers claim the water level in the center lobe has dropped by five feet.
“DEP’s definition of an emergency is not the same as our residents’ definition of an emergency,” she said.
At press time, Alderman Road resident Edwin Bennett said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officials have inspected the trench, and the water flow has been stopped.
Condon confirmed that DEP and Fish and Wildlife officials recently visited the site.
During the Save Our Lakes meeting, Vice president Chandler Rozear told members that in a few years, once the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project is operational, water levels at Lake Geneva will eventually rise.
“We can all wait a couple of years to get this resolved,” he said.
