BY DAN HILDEBRAN
For the first time since April 7, 1999, the water level on Lake Brooklyn exceeded 109 feet above sea level in February, according to data from the St. Johns River Water Management District. As of March 17, the level stood at 109.57 feet.
Tim Miller, the district’s chief of Bureau of Water Resource Information, told the agency’s governing board on March 12 that the lake’s water level rose by four-tenths of a foot during February. He also said rainfall totals across the 18-county district were slightly below average for the month.
“All counties were within an inch of their monthly average with the exception of Alachua County,” he said, “which was 1.3 inches below its February average. Countywide rainfall totals ranged from a high of 3.79 inches for Lake County to a low of two inches for Okeechobee County.”
Lake Brooklyn’s highest point since 1957, when records began tracking it, was on October 1, 1960, when the level reached 116.36 feet. The water body’s lowest point came on June 6, 2004, at 84.99 feet.
The $100 million Black Creek Water Resource Development Project, consisting of intake pumps in the south prong of Black Creek, 17 miles of 30-inch transmission pipe, and a 20-acre treatment area within Camp Blanding, is under construction.
According to district models, the project could recharge the Floridan Aquifer with up to 4.5 million gallons of water daily. In addition, the project could increase the open water in Lake Brooklyn by up to 387 acres and expand the emergent marsh in the lake by up to 91 acres.
