BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— A Black Creek Water Resource Development Project critic said he is out of options for stopping the project and acknowledges that the 17-mile pipeline will go forward.
When complete, the pipeline will pump up to 10 million gallons of water a day from Black Creek to a recharge area in southern Camp Blanding.
The goal of the plan is to restore water levels in Keystone Heights-area lakes and recharge the Upper Floridan Aquifer.
The St. Johns River Water Management District has set a groundbreaking target of Aug. 22 for the project and expects construction to be complete in two years.
Paul Still, a Bradford County Soil and Water Conservation District member and president of the Bradford Environmental Forum, has filed several objections to the project since it was first approved.
His latest attempt to persuade policymakers to reevaluate the project was to request a public hearing from the Army Corps of Engineers about a required permit for the project, which the corps issues.
The corps denied his request in May and Still said he plans no further objections to the project.
Still said his primary objection to the proposal has always been its costs, and he thinks the water management district’s costs forecast for the enterprise is too low.
“I think that when construction starts, they’re going to find out that the actual costs are way beyond their projections,” he said.
Still added that he has always supported the plan’s goal: recharging the Upper Floridan Aquifer through the Keystone Heights-area lakes. However, he has consistently pushed for an alternative to the Black Creek plan, one that redirects runoff from Chemours mining operations to the Keystone Heights area.
Still added that the Suwannee River Water Management District has always opposed his idea, desiring to keep the Chemours runoff within its jurisdiction.
“The logic of that argument doesn’t hold up because any water recharge into the Upper Floridan Aquifer would help both water management districts,” he said.
