Presidents Report by Lyndel Hale
I would like to report some good news, while there is no flow currently coming down Alligator Creek, the Option #7 pipeline is currently open and flowing water into the rim ditch and into the old mined area, which will end up in the Southwest Quadrant Lake. According to David Wright, Public Relations and Environmental staff of E.I. DuPont’s Trail Ridge Mining Refinery, David reported that the Option #7 pipeline has discharged about 250,000,000 million gallons of water from June 2005 to February 2007. The amount of water that was pumped from the Floridan Aquifer by their well was 220,000,000 gallons of water from June 2005 to February 2007, which was less than what they delivered to the Etonia Creek Basin.
I know this looks odd, they sent more water than what they pumped? But the reason we received more water than what was pumped by DuPont was we had a very rainy season for the year of 2005. We are very grateful to DuPont for the efforts they have made to help improve our situation with the lakes.
We were also told by Camp Blanding at the Stakeholders meeting that Option #3 pipeline is also flowing, which is good because this will help keep the lake levels up in the upper lakes. These pipeline options are allowing water to flow into Blue Pond and Lowry Lake even though we are going through a dry spell. This will ultimately help once we see the rainfall return to our area thereby taking less rainfall water to reach the outfall level of these lakes.
It just goes to show the more systems we have in place the better our chances are going to be to capture rainfall and deliver it down the chain of lakes and Alligator Creek. We need to stay focused on the alternatives we have and look at all of the resources. Every gallon counts!
Vice Presidents Report by Dennis Barnhardt
Our group has been actively supporting the cause to “Save Our Lakes” for seven years now. We have done a great deal of research and studied the hydrology of this lake region area. Many nights of midnight oil has been burned going over data and reading the many studies that have been done by various hydrologist and geologist for the north central Florida area. I can say with confidence that we have a fair knowledge of how this system works.
Bobby Ludwig, Karen Lake and myself put on many presentations with various organizations in the Keystone Heights region, as well as the high school. It has been the mission of the “Save our lakes” organization to educate the community about our lake system and its hydrology. There are still some people who do not understand what we have been trying to say.
In a recent article I read I got the implication the writer was suggesting that there was little that could be done except to pray for rainfall. We believe that we can do more than just praying for rainfall. With out a doubt rainfall is the primary source of water to our lakes. We have never implied that rain was not a key ingredient to the survival of the lakes around Keystone. On the contrary, rainfall is our primary source.
What this organization has strived to pursue is ways to enhance the water flow to Alligator Creek thus increasing the volume of water to the lake system, or as known the “chain of lakes”.
We can’t restore the area to the way it was seventy years ago before man exploited the natural drainage of the Etonia Creek Basin. There are NO “do-overs”!
At one time the infamous Trail Ridge was a swampy area. Alligator Creek (south) was a rapid flowing creek, which was at times difficult to cross for cattle ranchers who would herd their cattle to market in Starke. When the military started building Camp Blanding back in the early 1940’s they had to bring in train car loads of sand to be spread around in grounds so the men had a place to march in. When Humphrey Gold Mining Company began drilling in the mid 1940’s on the ridge their well drilling rigs often got stuck in the soupy soil. They reported in their daily logs that there were times when they were drilling for core samples they were unable to determine at what depths the minerals were because of the soupy consistence of the soil. They reported that the water table in some areas was only two to three feet below the surface.
United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geologist Mr. Merritt stated in his report, “Simulation of the Interaction of Karstic Lakes Magnolia and Brooklyn with the Upper Floridan Aquifer, Southwest Clay County, Florida,” Water Resources Investigations Report 00-4204, by the US Department of the Interior US Geological Survey, by Michael L. Merritt, 2001.
The U.S. Geological Survey and St. Johns River Water Management District began this study in 1994.
Purpose and Scope
“The principle purpose of this study is to document the application of MODFLOW-96 and the USGS Lake Package (Merritt and Konikow, 2000) to the problem of simulating the interaction of Lake Brooklyn with the Upper Floridan Aquifer.
A quote from page 16, (titled) “Blue Pond Basin to Lake Lowry” “The uppermost lake of the chain, Blue Pond, was once fed by runoff and groundwater seepage from a wetland that extended several miles to the north and west. A half-mile long stream in a ravine to the north of Blue Pond was fed by ground-water seepage from surrounding land of higher altitude. Much of the surficial drainage to Blue Pond from the north was altered by the construction of berms, roads, canals, and borrow pits dating to the early 1950’s”.
A quote from page 46, “Another hypothesis deserving consideration is that a temporary increase in the rate of leakage occurred as a result of heavy pumpage of the Upper Floridan Aquifer and the consequent drawdown of the aquifer in the vicinity of Lake Brooklyn. Pumping from the Floridan Aquifer is known to have occurred at the previously cited sand mines located north, east, and southeast of Lake Brooklyn.”
Mr. Merritt conducted this study with the cooperation of St. Johns River Water Management District and was published by SJRWMD.
Also another quote from the “Investigation of Lake and Surficial Aquifer Interaction in the Upper Etonia Creek Basin”, Special Publication SJ96-SP15 by Professor Louis Motz, University of Florida, September 1996, page 7, “Man has also altered the hydrology of the basin.”
Just for clarity sake, we have known from day one that you are NOT going to fill up Brooklyn Lake unless we get an abundance of rainfall. It is a fact these lakes are always going to fluctuate with the rainfall, unfortunately they fluctuate much more so today than they did fifty years ago. Man has caused the system to be altered and the population growth has not helped with all the wells being tapped into the aquifer system. Our best alternative is to find ways that we can create reservoirs to capture rainfall thus enhance the natural drainage via Alligator Creek.
Hopefully Mr. Schreuder will be able to come up with some alternative solutions that will improve the current conditions. He is a very talented and intelligent gentleman.
Also I would like to ask all of the Lake Observers if they would please send in their reports for the year of 2006. Some of you have done so and we are comparing the results to calculate the average rainfall for the area. We are seeing a rainfall deficit so far ranging from 11 to 14 inches for 2006.
Did You Know?
We have told you repeatedly that our lake region is a natural “recharge area” to the Floridan Aquifer system. We have gone into great detail explaining the importance of why we believe in protecting the recharge area. In past years the SJRWMD has done research on developing a program to take actions to protect the recharge areas in the water management district. The water management forecasters realize in the near future with the population growth that water is going to be a commodity.
We, the residents and community of Keystone Heights lake region are asking for more research to be done on possible alternatives to capturing water and delivering water down through the watershed basin to our lake system , which would also benefit the aquifers from which we get our drinking water.
SJRWMD is doing research as to meet future water supplies. In an article recently published in the Times Union, the writer told of an experiment the SJRWMD is researching with the storage of water. (as quoted from the article:)
“Planning to meet future water supply needs involves understanding a variety of technical variables, such as how to store water that is available for use tomorrow. Today, groundwater meets most of our water supply needs. Tomorrow, surface water from the St. Johns River will contribute to our drinking water. But the available river water will sometimes be more than needed and at other times, it will be less. So how can the excess water be stored?”
“Capturing water when it is readily available and storing it until it is needed is not a new concept,” said Doug Munch, director of the SJRWMD Division of Groundwater Programs. “reservoirs and above-ground water storage tanks are common ways of storing water. Unfortunately, due to Florida’s flat terrain and warm temperatures, some of the water put into a reservoir would be lost to evaporation. In addition, the rising cost of real estate makes reservoirs an expensive option.”
“Aquifer Storage and Recovery is another, more cost effective way of storing water. In ASR, water is pumped into a well, which places that water in portions of the Floridan Aquifer system. Just as water is removed from any other well, the water in an ASR well is pumped out of the well when it is needed.”
“If hydrogeological conditions are favorable, the stored remains in place until it is withdrawn.”
“In 2002, the district initiated an ASR construction and testing program to determine the appropriateness of increasing use of ASR technology throughout east-central Florida to provide the needed storage capacity for utilities that develop or import finished potable water from a future surface water treatment plant located on the St. Johns River.” “Six potential sires were identified as feasible based on the desktop analyses. Exploratory wells were installed at the sites. The wells were successful at five of these sires. All of the ASR test wells are designed for 1 million gallons per day or more of storage capacity.” (Source: Florida Times Union, Jan. 20, 2007)
There was no mention of the cost of the construction or operation of these ASR wells, but you can be sure it is in the millions of dollars of our tax money we pay to the water management district.
What ever the future holds it is certain if we don’t try to save our lakes they will disappear as our population grows with every glass of water.
