GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Lake Region residents have patiently waited for the Black Creek Project to become a reality for nearly 40 years. After years of planning and discussing, the project is already in its second of three phases. Once completed, the regional project will refill the upper part of the Florida aquifer. It involves taking some excess water from Black Creek’s South Fork at State Road 16 and transferring as much as 10 million gallons daily through a 17-mile pipeline. Along the way, it will pass through a filtration system to remove tannins before the water flows into Alligator Creek, which flows into Lake Brooklyn. The project also will increase the recharge to the Upper Floridian aquifer and Lower Sante Fe basin through the lake bottom. Work on the new pipeline has started as workers complete the pump station. The $100 million project consisted of three stages. Installation of a pump station started on Oct. 24, 2022, and it’s nearly completed.

The second stage for the pipeline is underway. The third stage – the filtration station – will start later this summer.