Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— A St. Johns River Water Management District official said Lake Brooklyn’s water level rose 2.8 feet in September.
During the district’s October governing board meeting, Christine Mundy, the district’s bureau chief of Water Resource Information, showed a chart outlining the lake’s water level over the past 12 months.
The chart showed the water level around 100 feet above sea level from September through December 2021, then dropping over the next two months to around 99 feet before climbing to just over 101 feet in April. The level remained at approximately 101 feet until August, when rainfall pushed the lake to 102 feet. September rains, including those produced by Hurricane Ian, lifted Brooklyn to 105.2 feet, giving the water body a six-foot gain in water level over the past 10 months.
The lake has been as low as 85 feet and as high as 116 feet since the district has been recording the data.
Aquifer levels and springs flows
Mundy said Upper Floridan Aquifer levels throughout the district were in the normal to high range at the end of September.
“Almost all the wells included in this report showed a greater than 10 percentile point increase in their levels compared to the previous month,” she said.
Mundy said flows at Silver Springs increased by 10% over the previous month and flows at Rocks Springs increased slightly.
However, flows at Blue Springs decreased in September, as did those a Wekiwa Springs north of Orlando.
“The flow at Wekiwa decreased sharply right at the end of the month,” she said, “most likely a result of flow suppression from the wider Wekiva River system where water levels were extremely high as a result of the rainfall from (Hurricane) Ian.”
