The Springs of Florida are very special. Many parts of the country don’t have anything like what we have here. It is not like big beautiful springs are in abundance. The Springs found here in Florida are because of the topography. A very special Karst formation.

When they were first found here on the Florida Peninsula by humans, only the local natives were enjoying them. The earliest European explorers thought they were the “fountain of youth.” They they found them to priceless, one of the greatest treasures of the new world.

Even though today we have less springs than we had 100 years ago, the ones that we do have, like the Rainbow River, Kings Bay, Homosassa and Chazz. are some of the most beautiful in the world and should be considered priceless.

We are blessed to have some of the best springs in the world still flowing right here in Central Florida. So, how can we protect them from decline and make sure they are still around for our children and grandchildren, generations for years to come?

All the fresh water that is in our aquifer has basically come from rainfall that over the years has seeped below the surface to fill up the aquifer. 100 years ago there was lots of open land for the rain water to seep into the ground and the aquifer was filled to the brim. There was fresh water everywhere.

Today we find less open land and instead more paved over areas or impermeable surface areas like dense housing developments that hinder the recharging of the aquifer. And the aquifer is no longer full.

Some people don’t realize that open lands and woods have great value in allowing rainfall in the spring shed to seep into the ground naturally, the way Mother Nature designed. They think that if they can’t build a house on it, it is worthless. It is not.

When housing developments become so dense, they require the building of large pits called retention ponds. This is where things can start to go wrong.

All the excess rainwater is funneled into the pit and sometimes the water in the pit does not drain into the soil so quick, because it was dug in a place that did not drain. The natural place where water used to naturally drain in now covered by houses and driveways.

Sometimes water runs off fertilized lawns and collects in centralized retention ponds containing the runoff from dozens of houses. This water is full of excess nitrates that concentrate, as this high level of nitrate pollution works it way into the aquifer it can act like a highly corrosive drip that decays the limestone Karst holding our aquifer.

Sink holes can open up in unexpected places due to damage to the natural karst formations. Then over pumping water out to feed thirsty lawns can lead to more damage as the water levels in our ground water go down.

Sometimes I see automatic sprinklers spraying water during the hottest time of the day and I think that is just horrible. That is just a plain waste of water. At high noon on a sunny day, over 90% of the water sprayed can evaporate into the atmosphere. Some of it not even reaching the ground or what does reach the ground later evaporates.
With hot winds blowing all that water back up into the atmosphere and then out over the ocean means we are loosing water that should be in our aquifer by careless watering habits. We can do better.

When developments are designed today, they use a cookie cutter approach… how to get the maximum number of building lots and shove a retention pond where it is out of the way. And that is sometimes in the wrong place.

Open land that allows the rainwater to drain into the aquifer naturally has great value in protecting our drinking water and springs. Impermeable surface areas that do not allow the water to seep into the ground hurt the natural absorption into the earth from rainfall.

Our open spaces should be protected. If land is zoned for Parks and Recreation or Agriculture it should stay that way. There are a lot of things you can do on those lands, but the one thing you are NOT supposed to do is build houses on them.

Developing parks or agricultural lands are a favorite target of developers in the business of building houses. Sometimes they can buy the land cheep and then pressure elected officials to change the zoning to residential.

One of the most profitable uses for land is chopping it up into as many building lots as possible, and then building houses on the lots. If left unabated this practice will continue to destroy open lands that are vital to the the lands ability to recharge the aquifer, thus drying up the springs and our drinking water supplies.

Here on the Rainbow River a great victory was won. For all the people today using the river and future generations to come. A large land owner who was originally planning on chopping up the open fields into a big development was persuaded to change his mind and instead sold a conservation easement to keep it forever unspoiled.

I am looking forward to continuing to clean up and restore what ever parts of the Rainbow River we can in the coming years. Much to be done.

For more information visit OneRakeAtATime.org

Thank you, Art Jones