BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A Division director for the St. Johns River Water Management District said that although the district is ready to begin pumping water from the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project into the Lake Region’s Alligator Creek which leads to Lake Brooklyn, it cannot at this time because of low flows and low water levels in the creek.
“We are ready to put water into Alligator Creek,” Dale Jenkins told the district’s governing board during a June 10 meeting, “which would eventually flow to Lake Brooklyn, but we’ve got to have enough flow in Black Creek, and we don’t. The extended period of dry weather has put the flow in Black Creek below 25 (cubic feet per second), so we’re hoping that pretty soon, the rain will start coming. We’re getting into that time of year. So as soon as that happens, we’ll be ready.”
Jenkins told governing board members that the project is essentially complete with the exception of the treatment plant within Camp Blanding.
He added that two of the six treatment cells at the facility are operational, which means that if Black Creek flows were satisfactory, the district could disburse Black Creek-filtered water into the Etoniah Chain of Lakes.
Jenkins said the district has tested water from both operational cells, which meet all the criteria of permits issued for the project.
“Moving on to cell number three,” he briefed the governing board, “everything’s in place in cell number three. It’s ready for media, and it is getting media. It’s about 65% filled right now.”
He reported that Cell 3 should be operational by mid-July.
Jenkins added that the piping in Cell 4 is complete and the cell is being filled with stone. He reported that piping is being installed in cells 5 and 6.
