By Roger Jimenez, Interning Correspondent for The Apopka Voice
The Apopka City Council approved another extension for the Golden Gem road project, making it the sixth extension to date, with plans of a seventh on the horizon.
The decision was made during the special council meeting held on Sept. 30, after Public Works Director Vladimir Simonovski presented the project's progress.
The project began on May 15, 2009, when the City of Apopka and the St. John’s River Water Management District entered into an original agreement for the district to convey the Golden Gem property to the city.
The conveyance was conditioned on the City's commitment to design, permit, and construct a reclaimed water storage and other enhancement projects. Since the original execution, the parties have approved five previous amendments to extend the project completion deadline.
The city has encountered several challenges that have delayed the project's completion, including issues with the pond liner and construction. The current Sixth Amendment extends the deadline to May 29, 2026, to allow for continued technical evaluations and project development.
The sixth amendment to the agreement includes several key required items.
The process begins with the Consumptive Use Permit (CUP) modification application, which was submitted on August 21, 2025. Concurrently, Petro Tech is conducting a comprehensive hydrologic and liner material evaluation, expected to be completed by October.
The amendment also called for a reclaimed water operating and water balance model analysis, which Petro Tech is working on and aims to finish by January 2026.
The south pump station design is currently 75% complete and should be finalized by the spring of the upcoming year. To maintain transparency and track progress, monthly status meetings with St. John's River Water Management District are scheduled to continue until May 2026.
A critical milestone was achieved on September 9, 2025, when the St. John's River Water Management District Board approved the amendment.
But some residents feel like the City is wasting their time.
Resident Albert McKimmie believes that the city is putting a Band-Aid on a bigger problem.
“The [pond] is not in compliance with Florida statutes as it currently stands. The second problem is that, before you can define what that pond needs, you don't know if it's going to need liners that are made from polyethylene, or whatever it is. The only way you're going to be able to figure that out is by removing the existing liners… You don't even know where you would put the water if you remove it from the pond. This isn’t going to happen.” McKimmie said.
Other residents expressed environmental concerns.
“My concern is for the aquifer that was exposed and for the fill that was placed there. We've got to be careful about the fill that goes in there, and it was supposed to be a clean fill… But we know that construction debris, old concrete, and plastics were dumped down in the aquifer,” said local resident Dr. Phyllis Omstead. “Concrete, debris, wood, and plastic do not belong in our aquifer. And that was placed by your vendors in there, the contractors, and there should have been somebody supervising that job... Now that water is being sucked up through our water system and into our drinking water and baking water and into our springs, and we're absorbing that into our bodies.”
As for the seventh amendment, which will be discussed soon, Commissioner Nick Nesta suggested having a workshop that would provide an in-depth explanation of its purpose.
“Amendment seven will be related to extending the project, [as well as] what is included with the $14.4 million used for repairing the liner and building the pump station that will probably be underway at the time. It's also our goal for the district to consider having a separate condition for the repair of the larger liner of the larger pond because that will require a little bit more time.” Simonovoski explained.
