Dennis Barnhardt and I just recently went on a radio talk show, 93.7 FM “the Sky”, in Gainesville with talk show host Jay Anderson. We were invited to appear on the show by Jay whom also is a resident of the city of Keystone Heights. Being a resident of Keystone Jay was concerned to know what is being done in this area. We discussed the issues with the lakes as well as some of the work that had been done and is being proposed to be done by Peter Schreuder, which brings up the topic of the new revised proposal by Mr. Schreuder.
Mr. Peter Schreuder, senior geohydrologist and founder of Schreuder Inc., has revised his proposal for the hydrologic study he proposes to do for our area lakes. His revised proposal still keeps the study with in the $50,000 budget. As you may recall Peter and his firm did the first study back in 2002 and has offered to extend his research. His latest proposal includes the following:
“Proposed Scope of Work”.
Task 1: Coordination Meetings
According to the documentation on the website of the SJRWMD, minimum levels have been set for Blue Pond, Lake Lowry (a.k.a. Sand Hill Lake), Lake Magnolia, Lake Brooklyn and Lake Geneva. According to a recent report prepared by the LRCA the implementation of the previously recommended Option #1 (Ditch Cleaning Trail Ridge) and Option #3 (Controlled Outlet Southwest Lake and Pipeline to Blue Pond) have resulted in a significant augmentation of surface water to Blue Pond. This additional inflow of water into Blue Pond from a larger drainage area (Old Mined Area) must have increased surface water flow conditions in the Etonia Creek Basin. This fact, I believe opens the door for the implementation of Option # 5 (Using Lake Lowry to Provide Water to Lake Brooklyn). This will require that the representatives of the State Government, the City of Keystone Heights, Clay County, the LRCA and others to actively participate in a coordination meeting with the SJRWMD to discuss revising the determination of setting the minimum levels for Lake Lowery and others. Schreuder, Inc. has already prepared the preliminary designs and we have already collected lake level data. We may have to install a gauging station on the outflow from the Southwest Lake to Blue Pond to measure the continuous rate of additional surface water flow into Blue Pond.

SI anticipates that one coordination meeting will be held with all the stakeholders including elected officials from the State, County and City as well as private organizations to plan the approach and agenda prior to the meeting with the SJRWMD. SI anticipates that a second coordination meeting will be held with all the stakeholders and representatives of the SJRWMD at the same day to discuss the possible revision of the minimum lake levels and the feasibility of the three ideas presented during our last meeting. They were: 1) the concept of the Aquifer Recharge and Conveyance; 2) the reduction of the vertical hydraulic conductivity in the sediments underlying Lake Brooklyn by the dispersion of natural clays; and 3) the importation of secondary effluent into the Old Mined Area with the use of a naturally developed wetland systems in that area to provide natural treatment of the effluent to meet AWT standards at Southwest Lake.
Task 2: Compile a Complete Record of all Recent Data and Conduct a Comprehensive Correlation Analysis
John Dumeyer and I have reviewed the data that we were able to retrieve through the Internet. The data appears to support Dennis Barnhart’s statement that the implementation of option # 3 accomplished the goals that we had calculated and on which our recommendation was based. Although we do not have much site specific information yet, (to be collected as part of our follow up study), Dennis’s comments appear to support what John and I have determined, namely that the yield from Lake Lowry may be large enough that regulated discharges over a larger fluctuation of the elevation of the water surface in Lake Lowry could provide significant benefits to Lake Brooklyn. SI plans to collect all available hydrologic, rainfall, surface water flow and construction data for the entire Etonia Creek basin. Data correlation analyses will be performed to determine which factor of change may have the most beneficial effect on the surface-water levels in Lake Brooklyn.
Task 3: Perform Detailed Field Inspection and Hydrographic Survey
According to Dennis Barnhart’s oral report during the November 8 meeting, pine trees around Blue Pond have suffered some degree of mortality. This can be ascribed to either high surface water conditions in Blue Pond or an infestation of the pine bark beetle. If the cause is a higher than normal surface water level, than the SI team will investigate if the additional inflow from Southwest Lake may in part be responsible. If that is the case, we need to conduct a detailed field inspection to check if downstream snags in the flow channel of Alligator Creek are preventing an effective drainage of the extra surface water from Blue Pond to Lake Lowry. Similarly, SI hydrologists will inspect the flow channels from Lake Lowry to Lake Magnolia and from Lake Magnolia to Lake Brooklyn. SI hydrologists will assist SJRWMD hydrologic technicians in conducting surface water flow measurements at selected location along Alligator Creek, in particular in the stream channels between Lake Lowry and Lake Brooklyn The purpose of these measurements is obtaining data for the review of the minimum lake levels and to determine stream flow losses along these channels SI assumes that surface water levels in all the lakes are and have been measured accurately and that this information is available in electronic format.

Task 4: Minimum Level Review Meetings
The field data will be analyzed; particularly the stream flow measurements, to prepare for the minimum lake level review meeting with the SJRWMD. The interim report will contain descriptions of the finding of the field inspection and recommendations for specific action items. SI assumes that the result of the work in Task 4 will be a change in the determination of the minimum lake levels in all the lakes in the Etonia Creek basin, in particular Lake Lowry. It is anticipated that this change will lead to the implementation of Option # 5.

Task 5: Conduct Stakeholders Meetings to Select Preferred Additional Options
After the meeting(s) with the representatives of the SJRWMD, it will be known if Option # 5 can be implemented. If this Option # 5 can be implemented following a change in the minimum lake levels, SI will prepare more detailed preliminary engineering plans for the implementation of this option by the National Guard at Camp Blanding or other parties.

If no change in the minimum lake levels can be obtained from the SJRWMD, SI will focus on other existing or new options and prepare to present these for full discussions in meetings with all stakeholders. The objectives of these meetings will be a ranking of the remaining available options based on the same criteria as has been applied during the first (2002) study. To prepare its cost estimate SI assumed that a total of two one-day stakeholders meetings will be held in Keystone Heights
Task 6: Prepare Conceptual Engineering Plans of Selected Options
SI assumes that not more than three final options will be selected for further implementation. SI will prepare rather detailed conceptual engineering plans and approximate engineering cost estimates.
Task 7: Prepare Final Draft Report, Conduct Stakeholders Final Review Meeting, and Prepare Final Report
SI will prepare a final draft report and distribute copies to all stakeholders. After their review, SI will organize a final stakeholders meeting to discuss all comments and suggested editorial changes. After receiving this final input from the group SI will prepare a final report. Ten hard cover copies of the report will be printed along with an electronic master copy on CDROM.

Well so much for the El-nino rains the climatologists predicted. We are currently experiencing another very extreme drought. The meteorologists claim the drought conditions from this one is even worse than the one in 1998. They do predict another active year for hurricanes and tropical storms. I hate the thought that our only hope is for hurricanes or storms after seeing the devastation caused by past hurricanes. This is certainly not the rainfall we are praying for.
I have an apology to make. In our last issue of the newsletter in the “News You Can Use” section, I stated that “On Tuesday, March 27, 2007, our district Clay County Commissioner, Chereese Stewart, presented the resolution to the Board of Clay County Commissioners, but because there was no council present from the city of Keystone Heights to speak on behalf of the resolution the commissioners opted to put the hearing for approval on hold until the next meeting.” That statement was incorrect. The truth was the resolution was in fact passed by the Board of Commissioners and a copy was sent to Florida Representative Joe Pickens and Florida Senator Evelyn Lynn.
It drew some disturbing attention by a couple people and even prompted an article by Editor James Williams in the Lake Region Monitor.
I reported exactly what we were told, which came from a county employee and considered to be a reliable source. After hearing this I sent an email to our Clay County Commissioner, Chereese Stewart, asking her if this was in deed what happened. Mrs. Stewart replied on March 29, “We voted for the resolution and copies have already been sent to Rep. Pickens and Sen. Lynne to show our approval! So we'll see how things work out on the state level !”
Unfortunately the next day I suffered a heart attack and was transported to the hospital. Our newsletter is on a time schedule just as any newspaper is. I finished the newsletter while in the hospital and sent it to the printer. I did not see Mrs. Stewart reply until I returned home. After reading her reply I immediately sent her an apology and told her I would write a retraction in the next newsletter. Chereese replied “I am sorry to hear about your heart attack! But glad to know you are doing well! Don't worry about the newsletter - it will be ok!” I also sent a written apology by email to Keystone Heights Mayor Hildreth.
If you read the article you will see that we were elated to see that the Keystone Heights City Council passed the resolution. So much so we made it the head line. With exception of that one paragraph most of the article focused on the fact the resolution was passed. It was not our intent to embarrass or upset anyone. We are certainly not exempt from making mistakes when reporting news just as any newspaper.

There is a great deal of talk about “Global Warming” and the impact it is having on the weather world wide. Recently a panel of several hundred scientist gathered together at an International conference to reveal and review their opinions on the dilemma. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Over 120 nations attended this meeting in Brussels, Belgium.
Several governments, United States, China, and Saudi Arabia raised many objections to the phrasing of the final draft report. Several scientist objected to the editing of the final report.
After five days of negotiations key parts of the chart was removed which highlighted the devastating climate change with each 1.8 degrees of temperature. The final draft of the first IPCC Report, which will be presented in four parts, is the most comprehensive scientific report ever made on the impact of global warming primarily caused by man-made carbon dioxide pollution. The study is comprised from a collection of over 29,000 data sources.
“The poorest of the poor in the world and this includes poor people in prosperous societies are going to be the worst hit”, said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.
Areas which are in drought will become even drier. Africa and Australia being the worse. Parts of Asia will be threatened with flooding from the melting of the Himalayan Glaciers. There are reports that the Austrian Alps Glaciers are melting and continue to shrink significantly. North America can expect more hurricanes, droughts, heat waves and wildfires.
During the final session, the conference met with a debate over a sentence that said the impact of the climate change had already been witnessed on every continent and in most oceans. The first page of the report stated, “There is very high confidence that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes”. (Source: CNN.com)
It makes you wonder if we are seeing signs of “global warming” here in Northeast Florida? The rainfall patterns have certainly changed since the 1990’s and the temperature also seems to become hotter sooner than as in the past and the air is drier.
We are again under burn-bans and seeing wild fires spring up all over the south. The weathermen are saying they don’t see any patterns for relief of rainfall for several months.
Last year we saw only 39.77 in. of rainfall recorded on White Sands Lake, which is a deficit of nearly 11 inches.. Currently we have recorded 7.70 in. of rainfall for the year and are running a deficit of 4 in.