It's the Same Water

Rain, stormwater, Alligator Lake, groundwater, Cannon Creek, drinking water, Ichetucknee spring water; --- it’s all the same water. You may have seen the film “Water’s Journey: Hidden Rivers,” filmed in north Florida by Wes Skiles of Karst Productions that was aired nationally on public television. The film clearly demonstrated that surface water and groundwater are the same water. Much of north Florida’s terrain is composed of karst which is a term for limestone that has dissolved and eroded to form sinkholes, fractures and caves. Water easily flows through karst limestone as it moves into and through the aquifer that supplies our drinking water and spring water.

It is the same water, but what makes it different is the variety of contaminants that it picks up as it flows across the landscape. The contaminants include bacteria from human, pet and livestock wastes, petroleum products from parking lots and roads, nitrates from lawn fertilizer, septic tanks and wastewater sprayfields and sediments and turbidity from construction sites and erosion. That’s a lot of undesirable stuff that is flowing into the aquifer and then to our springs and drinking water wells.

Cave divers swimming through caves that conduct water to our springs occasionally find a well that has been drilled into the cave. They are swimming in your drinking water. We have learned a lot about the underground flow path of water through the aquifer from cave exploration, dye trace studies and other research. During a recent study, dye was injected into sinks in Clayhole Creek, and in two days it traveled three miles to Rose Sink. The dye was also found in the drinking water wells of the Columbia City Elementary School located between Clayhole Creek and Rose Sink. Contaminated stormwater flows out of Lake City into Clayhole Creek, then through the sinkholes to caves that reach the school wells.

“In order to protect the water, you must protect the land”. Chinese Proverb

To further explore the sources of water pollution affecting the Ichetucknee, read the Springs Basin Story.