BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— The city council approved a proclamation designating April as water conservation month.
Mayor Karen Lake said April is a typically dry month, when water demands are most acute.
“The City of Keystone Heights has always encouraged and supported water conservation,” she said, “through various education programs and special events.”
Doug Conkey, intergovernmental coordinator for the St. Johns River Water Management District said conservation is not a month-long endeavor but an everyday endeavor.
“As we recognize growth is coming to Florida in great numbers,” he said, “conservation plays a much (greater role) in our everyday lives.”
Conkey said that one example of the district’s efforts to conserve water was last year’s decision to waive fees to plug unused or abandoned artesian wells.
He said the action resulted in 62 artesian wells plugged in the last six months.
“Which is more than any full fiscal year in the previous 50 years of the water management district’s history,” he said. “Most importantly though is that 10.4 million gallons of water a day are saved because of that.”
