Tag Archives: Black Creek

Black Creek treated waste creek water pipeline broke after less than a week 2026-08-11

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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]
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.

Continue reading →

Drought dire; GRU water withdrawal increase approved; no response about WFNF @ SJRWMD Board 2026-06-09

Asked directly about WFNF, what’s happening with the $125 million and have you cancelled the consultant contracts, SJRWMD had no response.

Remember that whenever somebody tries to tell you WFNF is cancelled. It’s just laying low.

That’s Water First North Florida, the plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin to seep down from wetlands into the Floridan Aquifer and come back up in springs, rivers, and drinking water wells, at the June 9, 2026, meeting in Palatka of the Governing Board of the St. Johns River Water Management District.

What they did do, after their Hydrologic Conditions Report showed how dire the drought is, they approved an increase in the amount of groundwater GRU can withdraw for Gainesville.

[Drought dire, yet approved GRU water withdrawal increase, No response about WFNF @ SJRWMD Board 2026-06-09]
Drought dire, yet approved GRU water withdrawal increase, No response about WFNF @ SJRWMD Board 2026-06-09

And they praised GRU’s wastewater reclamation, i.e., Sweetwater, as a model. They didn’t say, but that’s one of the precedents cited in https://waterfirstnorthfl.com: “Similar projects like the Sweetwater Wetlands Project in Alachua County and the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project in Clay County have successfully improved water quality, restored wetland habitats, and provided community benefits – proving this approach works for North Florida.”

Nevermind that, as Suwannee County BOCC pointed out, “You assert that this method has been “proven” at the Sweetwater Wetlands Project and Black Creek Water Resource Development. That is simply not true as both of those projects use wetlands to cleanse run off — not chemically “treated” water. To be blunt, those projects are not receiving sewer water like you are planning to use for the Water First North Florida Project. Even if they were similar projects, the difference in scale compared to Water First North Florida negates any reasonable comparison.”

For more about WFNF, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

Here’s another question. Continue reading →

SRWMD apparently does not know what were the 800 alternatives to WFNF 2026-04-24

Does the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) really not know what alternatives were considered before WFNF, and why they were rejected?

Or are they refusing to tell the public?

In either case, how are they representing the people of the Suwannee River Basin about Water First North Florida (WFNF), the plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin?

[SRWMD apparently does not know the 800 alternatives to WFNF]
SRWMD apparently does not know the 800 alternatives to WFNF

Meanwhile, all dozen counties in the Suwannee District signed on to resolutions opposing NFWF by the Rivers Task Force and by the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC).

The members of the Task Force and Council are all elected officials, unlike the boards of the Suwannee and St. Johns River Water Management Districts and JEA, who are promoting WFNF.

For those resolutions and the letters and resolutions by individual counties and the Town of Branford, as well as who you can contact, and a petition, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

On April 15, 2026, I sent SRWMD a public records request for the “over 800 initial alternatives to the four alternatives identified for additional study” to WFNF that were mentioned in a document they sent me. I included, “For each alternative, please include at least a description, along with reasons why it was rejected, and any relevant accompanying documentation.”

Today, April 23, I got a pretty nonresponsive reply, giving no descriptions nor reasons for rejection, with the excuse that, “The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) was not the managing entity for the contracts or investigations referenced in your request.”

The response even spells out that it is nonresponsive, “This is not a full response to your request, and at this time, the District is not aware of additional responsive records in its custody.”

They don’t even say who was the managing entity. I can only guess it was the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD). So today I sent SJRWMD a similar public records request.

There is nothing in the SRWMD response that indicates they considered the proposal by Dennis J. Price, P.G., to drill aquifer rehydration wells at overflows of planted pine wetlands.

There is nothing to indicate they looked at any desalination plants other than a few in north Florida.

The actual content of the SRWMD response was two attached spreadsheets, which you can find here: Continue reading →