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

Heavy pumping caused upper river collapse

It's natural for some wetlands, lakes and streams to go dry during Southwest Florida's driest spells.

But the way the main channel of the upper Peace River near Bartow went dry last week isn't entirely natural, several scientists said. And both aquatic life and mankind could be paying the price for years to come.

The scientists, from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, have conducted a study on the upper Peace River since 2002. They were interviewed this week just after the 3-mile section of the river under study rapidly drained into a series of sinkholes.

The scientists are working to map the dozens of sinkholes that have opened up in the area and gauge the amount of water they drained.

Last week, some of the researchers encountered heaps of dying fish floundering in muddy ponds that quickly dried out as the flow dwindled to nothing.

The water district plans to use the study to design a multimillion-dollar recovery project for the upper Peace, said Ron Basso, senior hydrologist for the district.

The project calls for water levels at Lake Hancock and in the Lakes Region north of Lakeland to be increased. The extra water would be discharged during dry periods to restore a "minimum flow" to the river, Basso said.

Lewelling said he first saw a segment of the river get drained dry in 1985. However, the rest of the upper river kept flowing at the time.

In 60 years of record, the first time the USGS's Bartow gauge recorded "zero" flow occurred amid a drought in 2002, Lewelling said. Now, it's happening again.

At least one of the most recent sinkholes, a 15-foot-deep cone-shaped hole dubbed "Dover," was recorded earlier this spring to be sucking down as much as 5 million gallons per day.

"I do think it's a relatively recent hydrological occurrence," Lewelling said. "That (history) tells you there's a trend going on and something is happening in the environment."

Since 1975, the pumping declined by about a third, and the acquifer's head-pressure climbed 15 feet in response. It remains 45 feet below land surface.

In his current study, however, Lewelling said he's focusing on the connection between the Peace River and the Hawthorn acquifer, which lies above the Floridan.

The sinkholes connect the Peace River with the Hawthorn. The research may show whether raising the level of the Hawthorn could restore the upper Peace, he said.

The level of water in the acquifer is the key factor in the draining of the river because surface water dissolves limestone, and that accelerates the formation of sinkholes, Lewelling said.

The phosphate mining industry also left behind vast clay settling areas along the both sides of the upper Peace River. The clay settling areas have blocked the seepage of "base flow" to the river, Lewelling said.

Who's to blame?

Gray Gordon, vice president of Mosaic Fertilizers, the largest phosphate mining company in the world, acknowledges that overpumping by the industry contributed to the loss of spring flow in the 1950s.

An economic boom in Polk County was also responsible, he said.

However, the phosphate industry is currently "not affecting surface water flow," he said. He said the industry now recycles 90 percent of the water used in the mining process.

"We are doing the very best that an industry can do," he said.

Gordon also denies that clay-settling areas are blocking base flow. He said most of the berms surrounding old clay settling areas have been recontoured to reconnect their runoff to the watershed.

Most of the mines have played out in Polk County and the industry has begun moving south.

Although the shift will allow the industry to reduce pumping in the upper Peace area, the right to pump will be transferred to supply growth, according to David Moore, executive director of the water management district.

To restore spring flow, pumping would have to be reduced to 1930 levels of just 25 mgd, and that would create an economic catastrophe, Moore said.

"Everything we do changes the environment," Gordon said. "So there's no way to point your finger to one thing, and if you did, that one thing would be growth."

A lost resource

"My father-in-law used to swim in Kissingen Spring as a boy," said Sam Stone, environmental affairs coordinator for the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority.

The spring, located near Bartow, went dry in 1950, in the midst of a phosphate mining boom and the ensuing pumping that went with it.

Stone said his personal hope of seeing the spring restored gave him a keen interest in Lewelling's research.

But he also has a professional reason to be interested. The authority relies on the Peace River to supply 20 million gallons per day of drinking water to 150,000 customers -- and those numbers are expected to double in a few years.

However, the amount drained into the upper Peace's sinkholes probably has a negligible effect on supply, he said. That's because a number of creeks augment the flow of the river in its 70-mile journey from Bartow to the water plant near the DeSoto-Charlotte county line.

The average annual flow of the river exceeds 600 mgd.

"We're watching and learning, and we're interested," Stone said. "But in the world of things, (a 6 mgd of loss) is not going to make us or break us."

It's not unusual for a stream to go dry, he said. Normally, the fish can seek refuge in the river's main channel.

"But having a main stem of a river system go dry, that is an usual characteristic," he said. "So repopulation ... is dependent on fishes that survive in the downstream segment."

The loss of the upper Peace River may also add an increment of decline to the whole of the Charlotte Harbor estuary. Fraser said that, normally, in early summer, a bloom of tidal plankton occurs in a particularly productive zone located where the river widens to meet the bay.

During the drought of 1999-2001, there wasn't any such bloom in that area, and the lack of fresh water was the likely reason, Fraser said.

The plankton sustains a class of worms and fishes that form a link the food chain, he said.

The river's flow since the 1970s has declined by some 35 percent compared to the previous 30-year period. Most of the decline is due to a change in climate, according to water district reports.

But man's activities have left an indelible footprint, Fraser said.

"It's definitely an impact that has been clearly exacerbated by human activities," he said.

By Greg Martin

Staff Writer

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