Black Creek Water Resource Development Pilot Project

 Clay County

The Black Creek Water Resource Development Project is to increase recharge to the Upper Floridan aquifer and secondarily address drought-stressed lakes in northeast Florida using excess flow from Black Creek, in Clay County. Black Creek intake water contains natural tannins that are composed of organic acids derived from decomposed organic matter found in watershed discharges within the Black Creek basin that impart a “tea” color to the water. This project requires that tannin in waters that range from 50 to 300 platinum-Cobalt Units (PCUs) from Black Creek be removed to 40 PCUs prior to entering Lake Brooklyn via Alligator Creek.

Working with CDM Smith, SWIG conducted a column study and operated a pilot system to understand color removal treatment performance and lifetime using their Phosphorus Elimination System (PES). SWIG successfully showed that removal of tannins is feasible, meeting both water quality discharge criteria and lifetime expectation.

Ultimately, a final treatment system would need to handle between 7.5 to 10 million gallons per day from the South Fork of Black Creek.