BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— St. Johns River Water Management District officials, Clay County representatives, City of Keystone Heights council members and state officials celebrated the upcoming construction of the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project during a ceremony in Keystone Heights on Friday, Oct. 21.
When completed, the project will take excess water from Black Creek, pump it through a 17-mile pipeline, and eventually discharge it into a passive treatment system that will remove color and minor nutrients. From there, the water will flow into Alligator Creek and ultimately Lake Brooklyn, where recharge to the aquifer will occur through the lake bottom.
“This is a unique project and one that I believe will be used as an example in years to come for how to address water supply needs across Florida,” said St. Johns River Water Management District Board Chair Rob Bradley. “And while aquifer recharge is the primary benefit, I look forward to seeing the area’s lake levels recover, bringing the economic and recreational benefits to the residents here in Keystone Heights.”
The district said that while the amount of water pumped each day will vary depending on the water level in Black Creek, the maximum amount of water diverted will not exceed 10 million gallons per day. Diversions will only be made when there is sufficient flow available to ensure the protection of natural resources within the creek.
Funding for the project was provided in the St. Johns River and Keystone Heights Lake Region Projects legislative appropriations over three years beginning in 2017. The total appropriation was more than $48 million, of which nearly $43.4 million was allocated to the Black Creek project. Additionally, north Florida utilities are contributing $19.2 million toward the project. Those utilities include the Clay County Utility Authority, Gainesville Regional Utilities, St. Johns County Utilities and JEA. The remaining balance will be provided from district funds.
Decades of effort
“This community has been dealing with unstable lakes for over 30 years, so to see this project become a reality is really incredible,” said Save Our Lakes Organization President Vivian Katz James. “I am so thankful to Chair Bradley, the St. Johns River Water Management District and all the funding partners. The community now has an opportunity to see this beautiful Lake Region recover.”
James traced the effort to restore Keystone Heights-area lakes to early lake advocates Rob Bamford and Chester Moody in the 1980s. During the next decade, advocates like Moody, P.F. and Judy Baumgardner, Sam Dunn, Doris Hicken, C.W. Owens, Dennis Barnhardt, Linda Wall, Nellie Stinson and Harold Marvin organized the Lake Brooklyn Civic Association, and later the Save Our Lakes Organization.
She said one milestone for the effort was hiring Tampa hydrologist Pete Schreuder to find solutions to decreasing lake levels. Early efforts focused on improving the water flow in Alligator Creek between Lakes Magnolia and Brooklyn.
“The lakes recovered some, but still not enough,” James said.
Another milestone was achieved in 2010 when SOLO fought off an effort by the district to lower Lake Brooklyn’s statutory minimum level from its current 101 feet to 81 feet and Lake Geneva’s from 98 to 83 feet.
Save Our Lakes leaders said that if the water level on Lake Brooklyn was allowed to drop to 81 feet, all that would be left of the water body would be two small ponds.
After delaying the proposed MFLs, SOLO dispatched volunteer technical experts like Webb Farber and Dr. Pat Welch to work with the district’s staff in finding acceptable MFLs.
Ten years later, the district issued new MFLs acceptable to lakes supporters.
Black Creek project
James said the catalyst for the Black Creek project was sown during a water summit in October 2016 organized by the City of Keystone Heights.
The three-hour summit at city hall brought together policymakers, including State Senator Rob Bradley and Congressman Ted Yoho.
During the first part of the meeting, Schreuder went over his latest report, commissioned by the Save Our Lakes Organization, that laid out several strategies to enhance water flows in the Etoniah Chain of Lakes and the Santa Fe River basin. Statements from summit participants followed Schreuder’s presentation.
Several participants said they were willing to help but needed engineered plans.
“Bring me a project,” Bradley said to summit organizers.
“Concepts are great,” added St. Johns River Water Management District Chairman John Miklos, “but we need to zero in on a project or two.”
Then city manager Scott Kornegay said that although the summit yielded no concrete solutions, it did raise awareness of how the Lake Region’s economy was tied to water levels.
“When the lakes went away, the economy went away,” he said. “So, it was key and critical to get the lake levels back up because when they are up, this whole area thrives.”
You can fight city hall
Shortly after the summit, Bradley took matters into his own hands and drove to district headquarters in Palatka to find a solution. Reviewing possibilities with St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Ann Shortelle, the pair discovered the Black Creek project in Appendix J of the North Florida Regional Supply Plan.
“This plan has been vetted,” Bradley told a Keystone Beach crowd in announcing the project in March 2017. “This plan has been discussed, and it’s been on the shelf. Now it’s time to take it off the shelf and dust it off.”
Bradley, now chair of the water management district, told the crowd at the project’s celebration that he remembers the 2016 water summit well.
“It was actually six years ago this week,” he said.
Bradley said he and a group of lakes supporters took the project to the senate president to get his support for the proposal.
“We explained to him with the map every single thing,” Bradley recalled. “And there was this big group and he understood how much it meant to our community.”
Bradley said the big lesson from the Black Creek project is that government can make a difference.
“They say you can’t fight City Hall,” he said. “They say the government doesn’t help us. Well, it does. In this case, the government listened, responded, and was deliberate. So don’t ever think that your voice doesn’t mean something. Don’t ever think that the fight isn’t worth it because this is an example of that today.”
Economy tied to water level
Keystone City Councilman Tony Brown said that growing up, he swam under the beach pavilion. He said that up to the 1980s, Keystone Heights was a weekend retreat for Jacksonville professionals. The local economy thrived from the dollars spent by lawyers and business owners.
However, as the lakes dried up, so did the economy. Restaurants closed, marine businesses boarded up, and the family department store went out of business.
Brown said he hopes that the Lake Region’s economy will rise as water levels rise.
Keystone Heights Mayor Karen Lake described the struggle to restore lake levels as a roller coaster ride.
“I love how all of the players, all of the stakeholders, have come together and resolved a really important problem,” she said. “I think generations are going to benefit from their efforts.”
