BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
FERNANDINA BEACH— An official with the St. John’s River Water Management District said the district has two final permits to obtain before the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project can proceed.
The planned 17-mile pipeline from the south prong of Black Creek to an aquifer recharge area in the southern part of Camp Blanding could transfer up to 10 million gallons of water a day, during high water periods, to the Upper Etoniah Chain of Lakes which feeds into Lake Brooklyn.
Bureau Chief of District Projects and Construction Vince Seibold told the district’s governing board during the board’s Oct. 12 meeting in Fernandina Beach, that Florida’s Department of Environmental Regulation must first issue an environmental resource permit for the project. After the state permit has been issued, the Army Corps of Engineers should then issue the final permit for the pipeline.
Seibold said the latest delay in the state permit was caused by comments from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.
“We got comments from EPA on our draft permit that the DEP is processing,” Seibold said, “so we’re responding to those.”
Seibold added that once the EPA signs off, then state regulators will issue the environmental resource permit, clearing the way for the Army Corps of engineers’s permit.
“So, we’re targeting January, February for getting our Army Corps permit,” he said.
Federal regulators earlier held up the project for over a year, objecting to the district pumping the dark-colored water from Black Creek into the clear water of the Etoniah Chain and ultimately into the Upper Floridan Aquifer.
In response to the objection, the district developed an organic filtering process that increased the cost of the project by tens of millions of dollars.
The project’s original budget was $48 million.
Following Seibold’s update on the project, Board Vice Chair Rob Bradley said he was tired of the delays.
“The federal government wanted us to make the water clear, and we paid a lot of money to do that,” he said. “So, if they’ve got more comments now, you’ve got to be kidding me. It’s time to get this done.”
