GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Chandler Rozear parked his car just inside the entrance to Seamark Ranch Monday afternoon and he followed the loud, grinding sound of trees being ripped to pieces.

Once down the crudely-cut path, he stopped and uttered the words: “Absolutely amazing.”

The wide swatch was far from pristine. It was filled with ankle-turning chunks of tree limbs and ground-level stumps that easily could snap the suspension from a monster truck, along with deep and sandy ruts. But it was everything Rozear hoped to see after waiting decades for the Black Creek Water Resource Development project to become a reality.

He was so willing to see action to follow promises, he was willing to drive past the no-trespassing sign in front of the ranch.

“I’m from Gainesville, but I have a house on Lake Geneva,” Rozear said. “I’m in Save our Lakes (Organization). I had to come here to see if this was really happening. They say seeing is believing.”

Rozear wanted everyone in Keystone Heights to believe it, too. Monday’s brush clearing was to make way for a pump station a few yards away from the South Fork of Black Creek.

Once done, the pipeline will send Black Creeks’ excess water through a pipeline to Alligator Creek. Once there, the creek will replenish the water that’s been recklessly drained from Lakes Brooklyn and Geneva. Engineers said it may take up to two years for the lakes to be replenished, but Rozear said it’s worth the wait since it took two generations for the project to start.

State, county and local officials joined representatives with the St. Johns River Water Management District on Friday, Oct. 21, to announce after nearly 40 years of pleading and negotiating would lead to the immediate construction of a 17-mile pipeline that will diverst as many as 10 million gallons a day from the South Fork of Black Creek that eventually will end up in Lakes Geneva and Brooklyn. Residents in the Lake Region appeared at every St. Johns River Water Management District meeting to demand their lakes be returned to levels that used to attract out of town visitors. Water levels have dropped because of overuse, SJRWMD Chairman Rob Bradley said.

Less than three days after the announcement at Keystone Beach, a landscaping company was clearing heavy brush and woods to make room for the beginning of the pipeline and the pump station.

The diversions will only be made when there is sufficient flow available to ensure the protection of natural resources within the creek. The water will be pumped through a transmission system before eventually discharging into Alligator Creek. Alligator Creek flows into Lake Brooklyn, which will increase recharge to the Upper Floridan aquifer through the lake bottom, according to SJRWMD.

The project is also expected to contribute to regional minimum flows and levels recovery and may help improve water levels in lakes and the Alligator Creek system, including drought-stressed lakes Brooklyn and Geneva. Restoration of the lakes is a secondary benefit of the project.

The current cost estimate for the construction of the system, including the pump station, pipeline and treatment system, is approximately $100 million.