Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— Lakes Advocate Vivian Katz James said that with water levels on Lakes Brooklyn and Geneva expected to rise over the next five years, the next challenge for Keystone Heights-area lakes will be removing grass, trees and other vegetation that has grown in the dry lakebed of Lake Geneva during decades of low water levels.
James told the city council during a workshop about the municipality’s priorities for the upcoming legislative session that she will ask state lawmakers for funding to remove the overgrowth.
James said she has already met with St. Johns River Water Management District and Clay County officials about her request.
“I’m calling it the Geneva Project,” she told council members, “and basically what this is going to do is we’re going to be seeking removal of vegetation and trees in Geneva hopefully prior to the water flow from Brooklyn to Geneva.”
She added that with the completion of the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project, scheduled for completion in the fall of 2024, she expects the pipeline to deposit an average of 7.5 million gallons a day into Lake Brooklyn.
James said she expects Brooklyn to fill up within one year of the project’s fall 2024 launch and start outflow toward Lake Geneva.
She said she anticipates costs related to permitting and mapping.
“We know that we’re going to have to get involved with (the) Florida (Department of Environmental Protection) and others to get permitting and that sort of thing,” she said. “We’re going to have to have some sort of mapping of the lake to see at what elevations there are issues with vegetation.”
Councilwoman Chris Thompson said another hazard created by rising water levels on Lake Geneva will be the pilings from deteriorating docks.
“They go down towards the lake, and there are trees everywhere,” she said.
James added that a Save Our Lakes member toured Lake Geneva and videoed the remains of many old docks along the shoreline.
“It was amazing how much are out there,” she said, “and so all of that’s going to have to be addressed.”
James said the clock is ticking for the cleanup, adding that after Lake Brooklyn begins outflow to Lake Geneva in late 2025, water levels in Geneva will be at historic highs in another two years.
“We have time, but we don’t have time to waste,” she said. “We don’t know what the cost is going to be yet, but it’s got to be done.”
In other news from the city council’s legislative agenda workshop:
Airport seeking funds for water and sewer service
Airport Board Chair David Kirkland asked council members to support his request for funding to get water and sewer service to the facility that straddles Clay and Bradford Counties.
Kirkland added that a feasibility study is still in process that will estimate costs for connecting airport facilities to Clay County Utility Authority lines in the area.
