Update 2026-08-15: It’s treated creek water, not human wastewater.

It broke four days after SJRWMD bragged about it working: the Black Creek treated waste creek water pipeline into Alligator Creek.

This is the prototype for the 60+-mile Water First North Florida (WFNF) pipeline from Jacksonville into the Suwannee River Basin.

We should trust SJRWMD and JEA to build a pipeline?

There’s an election going on. No candidate seems to want to support WFNF.

WWALS sent a clean water questionnaire to all Florida candidates for office. It also got answers on many other water topics. Some of those answers may help you choose who to vote for.

Here are the answers from Statehouse District 9:

https://wwals.net/?p=70813

And the answers from Statehouse District 10:

https://wwals.net/?p=70829

Black Creek treated creek water pipeline broke 2026-08-11, after less than a week, Prototype for WFNF

WCJB Staff, WCJB, August 11, 2026, Pipe burst, eroded underneath State Road 21 in Clay County, lanes blocked,

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS, Fla. (WCJB) – The Black Creek pipeline burst and eroded underneath State Road 21 between State Road 16 and Sharron Road in Clay County Tuesday morning.

Clay County Fire Rescue officials say the pumps that supply the water are secured. State Road 21 is currently down to one lane.

Fire rescue officials are at the scene and FDOT officials are mobilizing to repair the damage. Officials say there are no injuries or accidents at this time.

Pipe burst, eroded underneath State Road 21 in Clay County, lanes blocked, 2026-08-12 –WCJB © Jenn Samsel

The pipe burst on Tuesday. The Friday before, August 7, SJRWMD posted a reel on its facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1369502128493601

Water into Alligator Creek, 2026-08-07 –SJRWMD facebook reel

The text with that reel says:

A major milestone for the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project! Water is now flowing through one of North Florida’s largest regional water supply projects.

The project is designed to help protect future water supplies by recharging the Upper Floridan aquifer. As a secondary benefit, it is also expected to help improve water levels in the Keystone Heights lakes, including Lake Brooklyn and Lake Geneva.

While lake level improvements will take time, this marks an exciting step forward for a project designed to provide long-term water resource benefits.

Learn more: https://sjrwmd.info/BlackCreekProject

Following that link leads to the SJRWMD web page, Black Creek Water Resource Development project,

Black Creek Aerial 1024×576, 2026-06-17 –SJRWMD

Updated on 6-17-2025

The primary goal of the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project is to increase recharge to the Upper Floridan aquifer in northeast Florida using excess flow from Black Creek, in Clay County.

The project is among several identified in the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP) to help meet future water supply demands while protecting natural resources.

Also among those several projects is WFNF.

As recently as the July 14, 2026, SJRWMD Governing Board meeting, SJRWMD Chair Rob Bradley mentioned the Black Creek Project as important towards WFNF.

Black Creek WRD Project Map: Standard Layout 790×1024, 2021-03-26 –SJRWMD

He also said, “Don’t parse my words or anything like that. We’re not moving forward with Water First. All right? We’re not moving forward with Water First.”

Yet Rob Bradley also said, “That doesn’t mean that five years from now or three years from now or whatever, that some technology doesn’t come along that people who were concerned about it, it makes people less concerned about it. I think that technology is going in the right direction. We’ll see how it goes. And, um, and here we are.”

3 and 5 years from November 2025 when SJRWMD hired a contractor to work on WFNF: those are the dates the contractor is supposed to report back. And SJRWMD did not answer when asked in June and July if they had canceled the contract with that contractor.

There are some good signs. The WFNF domain has vanished:

https://waterfirstnorthfl.com

Well, it now gets, “Oops! This is not the site you’re looking for. We are sorry, you’ve landed on a page that is hosted by Flywheel, but isn’t yet set up correctly. Flywheel is a premium WordPress hosting company, built specifically for designers, freelancers and creative agencies. If you’re the site owner, follow the instructions below and you’ll be up and running in no time!”

That domain remains registered, to DomainsByProxy.com out of Tempe, Arizona. It may be that JEA or SJRWMD parked it there. If so, it can be reactivated at any time.

WFNF ain’t dead yet.

So vote wisely.

PSBCP

Pilot Study Black Creek Project 0002, 2021-03-26 –Dale Jenkins P.G., Director, Division of Projects, SJRWMD
PDF
https://aws.sjrwmd.com/SJRWMD/facts/Pilot-Study-Black-Creek-Project.pdf

Conceptual Pilot System Layout, 2021-03-26 –SJRWMD

District Executive Director Dr. Ann Shortelle, Board Vice Chairman Rob Bradley and Board Chairman Gen. Douglas Burnett 2021-03-26 –SJRWMD at today’s kickoff of the Black Creek Water Quality Treatability Pilot Study.

Thanks for finding the WCJB story, to Hailey Hall of the WWALS Events Committee and of Is Your Water Well?

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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