Drought conditions affecting Peace River The recent lack of rain may be jeopardizing the water supply of Charlotte County. Residents get most of their water from the Peace River, but drought conditions have actually dried up large sections of the river. Click here to read the article

05/03/06

The upper Peace River vanished last week right before the eyes of scientists conducting a study of a particularly impaired segment.

They watched in amazement as the river, already diminished to the size of a brook by a severe dry spell, trickled into a series of sinkholes and fissures.

Some of the fissures first opened during a drought five years ago, and some more recently. Like a drain in a bathtub, the holes drain the river's flow down into a limestone layer pocked with holes some 15 feet below land surface.

As the flow dwindled to zero in places over the past week, it stranded thousands of fish in small, muddy ponds that, within a few days, became sandy deserts littered with rotting fish.

"It was like (the television show) 'Fear Factor,'" said Patricia Metz, a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey. Metz was working with fellow USGS hydrologist Bill Lewelling to map sinkholes and analyze aquifers in the area, located near Bartow.

Metz recalled walking up to one particularly large, funnel-shaped 15-foot-deep sinkhole located off the main channel.

"There's just five feet (deep) of floundering fish and on top of the fish are snakes and turtles," Metz said. "The snakes were eating up these fish.

"I mean, they're all flopping, gasping for air," she added. "It was kind of disturbing to say the least."

The sight was so disturbing, in fact, that Lewelling returned to the area Saturday in hopes of rescuing stranded fish.

Lewelling, along with several Polk County volunteers, carried a couple of 5-gallon buckets of fish to a flowing area downstream.

"It was very sad," Lewelling said of the die-off. He said other researchers would have volunteered to rescue fish.

However, the rescue operation was ill-advised, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

First of all, for a river to dry out and have a fish kill is "somewhat natural," said Gary Morse, spokesman for the state FWC. He pointed out that eagles, ospreys, wood storks and other species feed on fish during low-flow periods.

Rescuing fish is also shunned because it introduces the fish into a habitat downstream that is also stressed by drought conditions.

"It's a feel-good proposition for people, but a bad management practice that results in additional stress (downstream)," he said.

The last time the river went dry was during the drought of 1999-2001. Before that, the river never ceased to flow over the past 60 years, since record-keeping began, Lewelling said.

This time, the sinkholes are larger and there are more of them, he said. Some were sucking down 2 million to 3 million gallons per day, he said.

"You can see the obvious here," Lewelling said as he showed a reporter a sinkhole in the river channel in the Clear Springs Mine area. "There are a number of sinkholes that take more water than the channel carries."

The sinkholes are caused by rain or river water dissolving holes into the limestone layer over the Hawthorn Aquifer, Lewelling said.

Eventually, the surface water eats out holes in the limestone so big the aquifer's roof caves in to create a "sink."

Although the process is natural, manmade impacts have accelerated it, he said. Those impacts include over pumping of well water and phosphate mining, which left behind clay settling areas that block the seepage of "base flow," he said.

Historically, the Hawthorn aquifer contributed water to the river in the form of artesian spring flow, he said.

Now, however, the river drains into the aquifer, he said.

Since 2002, Lewelling has been working to install monitor wells into the aquifers. His goal is to determine how they interact with the river.

The study, which is to be completed in 2008, may prove a theory of Lewelling's -- that reducing pumping from the Hawthorn aquifer could restore the flow in the upper Peace River.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District currently has no expectation of ever seeing the springs flow again in the upper Peace River, said David Moore, district executive director.

He cited the fact that Kissingen Spring, historically one of Florida's most prolific, went dry in 1950 as pumping surged amid a phosphate mining boom.

That pumping climaxed at 400 million gallons per day in the mid-1970s, drawing the Floridan aquifer down more than 60 feet. Since then, pumping has been reduced to 275 mgd.

In response, the Floridan aquifer has risen 15 feet. But, it remains 45 feet lower than land surface, Moore added.

To make Kissingen Spring flow again, pumping would have to be reduced in Polk County to less than 100 mgd, he said, and that's not economically feasible.

Instead, the water district is working on two projects to store more water in the headwaters of the river.

One project calls for the amount of water stored in Lake Hancock to be increased. The other calls for more water to be stored in the Lakes Region north of Lakeland. Some of that water would be discharged into the Peace during low flow periods.

But at least one environmentalist isn't impressed with the district's response to the problem.

"I think it demonstrates the systematic failure of 'Swiftmud' to maintain that river," said Clarke Keller, a board member of the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida."

He said government agencies should do more to protect wetlands and prevent similar impacts from the phosphate mining industry in the future.

http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/050306/ew4.htm?date=050306&story=ew4.htm

Drought conditions affecting Peace River
The recent lack of rain may be jeopardizing the water supply of Charlotte County. Residents get most of their water from the Peace River, but drought conditions have actually dried up large sections of the river.
Click here to read the article