BY JENN SAMSEL
Special to the Monitor
The Save Our Lakes meeting was in full attendance, and nothing short of residents coming out and making their voices heard with enthusiasm and some concerns on the Lake Geneva restoration project.
The event occurred on Tuesday, November 12, at the First Baptist Church in Keystone Heights.
Vivian Katz-James spoke throughout the meeting about the ongoing status of the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project, Lake Brooklyn, and the effort to prepare the Lake Geneva lakebed for rising water levels, which was the hottest topic of the meeting.
According to Katz-James, the area’s monthly rainfall in October was 8.41 inches, compared to the average of 4.01.
“For the year,” she said, “our average is 51.01, and this year, rainfall totals around 61.29. So, we’re up about 10.28 inches for the year.”
Katz-James also said Lake Brooklyn’s water level is 112.1 feet above sea level, an increase of 0.8 feet in October.
“We are less than two feet away from the top level,” she said. “This is all due to Mother Nature. No pumping (from the Black Creek Project) has started as of yet.”
She added that much of the additional rainfall was due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“The last time Lake Brooklyn and Lake Geneva were full to the tree lines was in 1998,” she added.
The Save Our Lakes president said the October 25 event at Camp Immokalee, celebrating the impending opening of the Black Creek Project, went extremely well.
“There were a lot of people, plenty of food and entertainment, and a huge thank you to everyone coming out to support us,” said Katz-James.
Status of Black Creek Project
The lakes advocate gave a quick update on the status of the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project. The 17-mile pipeline could pump up to 10 million gallons daily to Keystone Heights-area lakes and recharge the Upper Floridan Aquifer.
Katz-James said the pipeline is 99% complete, and the treatment facility is complete.
“So, we were waiting for the pipeline to get through,” she added. “The treatment facility is 65% done. The actual treatment fields have been constructed and await the actual filtering process. There was a backlog or delay on that, but it is now coming along, and we’re hearing that testing will happen sometime in December or January. Everything is ready to roll in February or late winter.”
Removing trees from Lake Geneva
The hot topic of the evening was what was happening with the Lake Geneva Restoration Project.
It has been roughly 50 years since Lake Geneva’s water levels have been where they should be.
Katz-James said much of the lake’s depletion has been due to population growth and very dry conditions throughout the decades.
A couple attending the meeting stated that in 1998, they bought a home on Lake Geneva because the lakes were very high.
Many of the residents remember boating the entire lake.
However, after 1998, Lake Geneva’s water levels declined throughout the decades. At one point, residents could see their fishing piers high and dry with no water. With all the dryness, trees grew, blocking the pathway of the boat launch and creating a forest at Nelson’s Point.
The meeting addressed the restoration project, which involves removing about 78 acres of trees, including at Nelson’s Point and around the county boat ramp near County Road 214 west of Keystone Heights. While there was little concern regarding the tree removal from the residents from the lake, there were concerns about how quickly the process would get going due to the water rising quicker than expected, plus how the removal process would work.
One member addressed the animals and their future, as Nelson’s Point has become essentially their habitat.
According to Katz-James, they are waiting for the Department of Environmental Protection to tell them how many trees they plan to remove.
“My concern is that if the trees aren’t removed soon,” she said, “the areas will be flooded due to the rising water levels, becoming a liability because the trees will fall, making the passageway hard and dangerous for the boaters.”
A few residents had questions about the elevation of the land on their properties, how far it would impact them, and who owned what part of the land as they got closer to the lake.
Scott Slater, a Save Our Lakes board member, briefly addressed the land elevation question. He said that now that the water is rising, residents with docks should ensure their piers are high enough to avoid submersion once Geneva levels rise.
The SOLO officer added, “I saw a survey done at the beginning of this year that (Florida’s Department of Environmental Regulation) puts a high-water mark at 97.2 feet for a residence on Lake Geneva, so anything below 97.2 feet, based on that survey, would be considered state property. That would change once the lake begins to fill.”
According to Save Our Lakes monthly newsletters, Lake Geneva is 94.2 feet, three feet from the state’s high-water mark.
Slater believes that documents assert the Lake has been as high as 106.2 feet.
So, we are looking at around 10 feet of water rising on Lake Geneva, said Slater. “Our goal is to get DEP to give us that elevation and say, everything below this elevation is state sovereign land.”
Slater also mentioned that Heritage Timber is ready to go out to Nelson’s Point and the county boat ramp to clear the areas of trees once permission from the state is received.
He added that the Save Our Lakes goal is to restore Lake Geneva to its original form before Black Creek water flows south toward the Lake Region in early 2025.
