Adam's Adventure and Photography Blog

Maybe you've lived in Florida for a couple of years or maybe you've lived here your entire life, either way you have no doubt experienced the cyclically unpredictable weather of the sunshine state. Here's what I mean, each year Florida experiences a dry season (typically the late fall, winter, and early spring) and a rainy season (late spring, summer, and early fall). This is a cyclic weather pattern that has existed in Florida for...well, let's just say a very long time, and this cycle is very dependable...Florida will always have rainy and dry seasons.

However, the length and ferocity of these seasons is subject to wide variances in predictability. It is very hard to tell, at least to the casual observer and to most meteorologists in my opinion, how wet the rainy season will actually be or, in contrast, the intensity of the dry season. If you were raised in Florida you have certainly experienced at least one very active hurricane season and you know how relentless the rains can be. Conversely, most of us have experienced a summer that was so hot and dry you thought there really might be something to this "global warming thing" (and there is...but that's another post). Not only do we experience yearly abnormalities in these seasons but we also experience cycle variations that may last five or ten years. For instance, since the big hurricane season of 2004, Florida has experienced intense dry seasons and relatively lackluster rainy seasons. The result...we are experiencing an extended drought cycle that so far has lasted about seven years. Frankly, and especially when speaking of Florida's weather, this is not terribly unusual.

So far this summer has been a dry one and the drought trend of the past several years continues. Orange Lake in northern Marion County is lower than it's been since the nineteen seventies, ponds and creek beds all over are bone dry, and aquatic animals like frogs, turtles, and gators are on the move to find wetter pastures. In ecological terms, Florida is suffering. People, plants, and animals living in Florida are severely affected by too much or too little rain. The plants and animals understand this immediately, but the humans are a little slow to comprehend. In simple terms ecology is how the critters living in an area interact with their home, a.k.a. their environment. Most Floridians have been out of tune with our natural homes for so long that we are slow to realize how changes in our environment can potentially lead to disaster.

Three Sisters Spring in Crystal River Florida. This spring and its surrounding lands were recently purchased with funds raised by the local community.

Here's a fact that has probably never occurred to most people and when heard, usually freaks them out...it still freaks me out! It's a water fact and it goes something like this: 99% of the worlds water is found in the oceans and is unable to sustain human life. That leaves just 1% of drinkable fresh water on earth and 99% of that is locked up in glaciers. With me so far??

That means just 1% of the total potable water on earth is readily available to us in the form of lakes, rivers, springs, and aquifers. Now think about that for just a second, how many of your local water sources would you feel safe drinking from? Now I can think of a few because I am fortunate to live in a region that literally houses the purest freshwater on the planet. Seriously, if you didn't know already, the Floridan aquifer is arguably the source of some of the cleanest water on earth, sadly however, that fact is becoming less true each day.

In the last twenty years the population of Florida has increased exponentially. Some where in the neighborhood of one thousand families move south to carve out their share of paradise each week... and can you blame them! The cost of living is cheap, there's no state income tax, it's warm, we have tons of beaches, and some of the prettiest rivers and springs in the world. My grandad moved here in 1958 for just those reasons.

Today our water supply is under siege. Plain and simple most hydrologists in Florida will tell you that both ground and surface waters around the state are becoming increasingly depleted and polluted with each passing year. This is not something that just started five or ten years ago but commenced in the decades following the Civil War when Florida began to experience the first of many population booms. It started with the draining of wetlands to accommodate new places to build. Since humans have established themselves here, approximately seventy percent of all of Florida's wetlands have been drained in the name of development.

Believe it or not this is the Suwanne River...at median water levels this is the site of Florida's only class three rapid...at big water levels I think it becomes a class four or five rapid...if the river naturally gets this low at times...you can see why it is so important to SAVE OUR WATER!

Basically the more people that move to Florida, the less clean water we have to drink. Think about it, ninety-nine percent of the houses that have indoor plumbing and running water in this state source that water from either the Biscayne or Floridan aquifers. These underground rivers twist and spiral and corkscrew through the karst Swiss cheese topography hundreds of feet below our feet. Even if you are on city water, the city has to get the water from somewhere and they get it from a giant well that comes strait out of the aquifer. Relatively speaking a small number of Florida's roughly twenty million people get their water from desalinization and their are probably a few thousand who get it directly from a lake or river. There might even be a few people that get their water from a cistern filled up by the rain, I sure hope there is anyway, in truth it's what we should all be doing.

Sunset on the Steinhatchee, one of the more pristine and undeveloped river on Florida's Gulf Coast

In Marion county, the average daily water use per person is 250 gallons per day. With a county population of around 260,000, that's about 65,000,000 gallons per day. On average, a first magnitude spring, of which Florida had 33, gushes just about 65,000,000 gallons per day. So what do these numbers tells us?? Hydrologist have found that the quality and quantity of water being expelled from springs are often direct indicators of the quality and quantity of Florida's overall water supply. These numbers tell us that our current water supply is just keeping up with our current demands.

If you assume that all Floridians use on average 250 gallons of water per day things get really crazy! That would put state water use at 5 billion gallons per day! The total output of first magnitude springs across the state per day comes in at about 2 billion gallons per day. Scientists estimate that the total discharge of all of Florida's springs in one day is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 billion gallons. At Silver Springs, Florida's largest first magnitude spring, hydrologists estimate that the flow has decreased twenty percent in twenty years and that nitrogen (fertilizer) levels have increased twenty times. We are still ahead of the game but not by much and the last time I checked, Florida's population is not getting any smaller and eventually our water use will overcome what our aquifers are able to provide.

My hope is that the water is always clean enough to keep manatees coming back to Florida's rivers.

Now let's talk water quality for a moment. When I was a kid the springs around north central Florida from coast to coast all had a few things in common. Every spring had a pristine, bleached white, sandy bottom. Where there was no white sand there was lush and fertile eel grass filled with giant bass and even bigger mud fish. Every time I went to the springs with my dad whether it was Crystal River, Rainbow, Silver, Homossassa, Juniper, Salt, Alexander...I walked away feeling like I had just been on a great adventure to an underwater world so beautiful... that when I swam in it, when I dove deep down to the bottom and pushed through giant eel grass to chase mud fish, I felt like I was living in a dream. I just never had any other experience so surreal and magnificent as swimming in those awe inspiring spring fed waters. I literally could not compare it to anything else but a dream. Only in my dreams had I ever felt that free...that special dream freedom where you know you are dreaming so you can do anything and go anywhere and explore everything you ever wanted to.

I did most of my spring exploration during the 1980s and 90s and little did I know that the quality of the most special and pristine water on earth was disappearing at an alarming rate and had been for some time. If you go to those springs today you will be hard pressed to find a white sand bottom. Due to a multitude of pollutants, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus from over fertilization, the spring bottoms are now encased in a thin layer of slime. It is true that you can still see white sand in some of these springs, particularly in the twenty to fifty feet radiating from the spring head, but if your old enough, the perspective of time tells you that the water quality of of the springs is much poorer statewide than it was twenty years ago and that should scare the hell out of all of us. That water we swim in is the same water we drink. If our springs continue to be poisoned, will we have drinkable water in fifty years?

The water quality has changed so much in just twenty years that I struggle to recognize many of these springs as the paradise of my childhood. However, the algae as become more than an eyesore that damages the beauty of the spring, but a result of chemicals in the water column that have changed the springs' hydrology. The eel grass is far less prolific in springs than it use to be and in many springs has disappeared all together. The algae blooms continually worsen and deplete the dissolved oxygen in the water column. This results in the death of not only fish but thousands of smaller and larger organisms that exist at different hierarchies throughout the food web. Often the fish you do see in the spring runs have abnormal growths under and upon their skin. I am not basing this on any one scientific study, just my own simple observations, a basic knowledge of spring ecology and hydrology, and my perspective of spring change over time.

In an effort to not just save but improve the quality of Florida's water and therefore the health of humans in Florida, I now pose some questions.

If the current trends continue: enormous population growth, increased water demands, and over fertilization...what will our springs look like in twenty more years?

Will we have springs at all in fifty years?

What happens to humans if we do not have drinkable water in Florida?

We might be able to pump it in from somewhere but at what cost?

Would you pay five dollars for a gallon of water?

I am not writing this as a dooms day message and I am not a super left wing, granola eating, tree hugging, hippie. I like guns, I eat meat, and I occasionally employ guns for the opportunity to eat meat. I believe in God and I say the pledge every morning for one hundred and eighty days out of the year. I am just as American as anyone else I know and I am not preaching socialism or communism! I just want our kids and grandkids to experience the beauty of Florida the same way I did. I really believe that if the majority of us just make a few simple changes to our daily water use habits, we can ensure that Florida'a water will flow clean for a very long time. I know this is easier said than done but just start by thinking of water as something really valuable...just like the early Florida settlers did. If you had to walk five hundred yards down to the river or to a well to lug water back to the house for cooking and cleaning I bet most of us would be a lot more careful with it. Water is a finite resource and there is only so much of it. Our world wide population is growing exponetially. According to current population trends, between now and 2050, more people will be born than were alive on earth at the end of World War II. How are we going to feed everyone? Quench every person's thirst? How we manage our resources, primarily water, will define the future of the human race!

Gunner and Porter in ultra low water on the Suwannee River at big Shoals State Park

Wwe've been given a pretty special place to live and we should do everything we can to take care of it. If you are a religious or spiritual person, most holy texts have at least some small mention of preserving what God has given the human race. The Christian Bible calls it being a steward of the earth. If you are an atheist or agnostic than you are probably a data driven practical thinker, and I don't know what could be more practical and full of common sense than taking care of our future water supply. We must stop taking our water for granted.

Listen, I'm not saying we should stop taking showers...God help your family and friends if you do! I am just saying we should educate ourselves and others on the importance on taking care of the earth's finite resources be it water, land, forest, oceans, fuel...whatever! For most of my life I never thought twice about leaving the hose running while washing the dog or car but I was wrong and I am glad I got educated.

The information that I have included here is rough and is without a doubt full of estimations and approximations. All that being said, it is essentially factual and based on science. There are tons of little things we can do every day to help save our water resources. I encourage everyone who reads this post it to go online or to the library, and check out my facts for yourself but if you can't find the time and just want to take my word for it, here's a list to get you started!

1. Don't ever water , fertilize, or put pesticides on your lawn. Seriously, just mulch your grass when you cut it and seed the lawn with a combination of bahaia, zoysia, and rye grass each spring. The mulchy grass clippings will provide all the ferilizer you need. If you do these things your grass will be just a nice and green as mine...which is reall green!

2. Use rain barrels to catch water from your roof.

3. Turn off the water when you are not using it...don't ever just let it run.

4. Take shorter showers...5 minutes if you can stand it.

5. Put a brick in your toilet reservoir...where all the working pieces are...it will decrease the amount of water you use when you flush.

6. If it's yellow let it mellow...if its brown flush it down! Except when you have company, probably better to flush it all while they visit.