An enormous amount of rain falls over the state of Florida from north to south year after year. The average annual precipitation for the entire state is about 51 inches, with higher amounts averaged in north and south Florida. Central Florida receives the state average annual rainfall of approximately 51 inches. However, the Florida landscape can absorb much more during tropical storms and hurricanes. The amount of water absorbed into the Florida landscape is staggering at estimated absorption rates showing more than 20 inches on average per year (4). In Florida, the soil confines water and then retains it within a structured hydrogeological natural phenomenon called “aquifer systems.” Aquifers are crucial to Florida’s freshwater resources because they contain or retain freshwater for drinking, agriculture, and industry for use as needed.

Gravity forces the hydrogeologic movement of groundwater in an aquifer system. Under natural conditions, water from the aquifer moves “downhill” and sometimes reaches the earth’s surface creating a spring or bubbling through sand in the bed of a river, lake, or other wetland areas. The volume of water that flows through the aquifer also depends on the porosity and permeability of the earth materials at its boundary. In other words, water flows faster (2) if the voids or gaps at the aquifer boundaries are large than when these gaps are small.

Florida also has nearly 8,000 temperate and subtropical bodies of water. This is the largest amount in the southeastern United States. (1) The state has thousands of ponds, lakes, rivers, springs, and sinking or “ephemeral” waters, the Everglades, and plenty of quicksand as well. In fact, Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in Florida at approximately 683 square miles. That’s bigger than many counties in the state.

Florida Spring Magnitudes

Florida’s land area does an incredible balancing act. Florida’s land mass is “floating” in a vast aquifer system (underground sea) of fresh water that runs underground (3) from South Florida to Miami. The aquifer water flows with an ebb and tidal cycle in the aquifers following rainfall patterns to recharge the aquifers. Aquifer systems can be thousands of feet thick and perhaps only a couple of feet in diameter as they run horizontally for miles. Larger aquifers produce larger “artesian” springs and the way a spring is measured is by its volumetric flow rate.

Springs are measured in “magnitudes”, where “1st” magnitude springs are the largest, “2nd” magnitude is the second largest, and so on. The magnitude of the spring is related to the volume of water that is discharged from the opening of the spring every second. A spring of the first magnitude has a flow greater than 100 cubic feet per second. Florida officials recorded 300 “artesian” springs and 27 first magnitude springs (2). These two natural phenomena cannot be matched anywhere else in the United States. Researchers believe there are more “1st magnitude” springs that have not yet been recognized due to the nature of Florida’s karst landscape. Examples of Florida’s first-magnitude springs are Silver Springs, Weeki Wachee Springs, and Kings Bay, the headwaters of the Crystal River.

Crystal River Headwaters They are born from first magnitude springs where I learned to dive as a young man. The opening of the main spring is forming Kings Bay with crystal clear water from the aquifer at a depth of about fifty feet. The bay itself teems with life, including vast amounts of flora and fauna. Crystal River is also a sanctuary for herds of manatees that enjoy the warmth of spring in the winter months. The average temperature of the water coming out of the spring opening is about 72 degrees F every day, winter or not.

Another interesting statistic is that the flow rate of the spring is directly related to the recharge rate of Florida’s aquifer systems which is based on the average annual rainfall amounts in the “spring sheds” or local watersheds of the spring in question. . When all the counts are added up, Florida’s springs produce higher volumes of water than anywhere else on Earth. The deepest and largest first-magnitude spring and aquifer systems yet discovered are in northern Florida near Tallahassee.

Florida’s springs and their related ecosystems are unique and cannot be recreated by man, giving them tremendous ecological value. Many of Florida’s springs are coastal, creating streams and rivers toward the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. These ecosystems are unique in the world and contain a diverse population of aquatic life and life that depends on marine life. (4) This includes marine species that live in fresh, brackish and salt water.

Interestingly, springs cannot be owned by individuals or industries if the spring is accessible by adjacent public waterways (4). However, Florida’s phosphate industry strip mines every day in many of these environmentally sensitive areas. Florida law, in this case, is blurry at best because the state of Florida grants permits to the phosphate industry to strip the landscape in these unique ecosystems. Where is the balance between public and industrial use of water?

Reference

1. DEP – (Florida Department of Environmental Protection)

2. Learn about Springs in West Central Florida. (swfwmd.state.fl.us)

3. Information on sinkholes. (lakecountyfl.gov)

4. Water quantity and politics in Florida. (srwqis.tamu.edu)