Environmental Protection

Groundwater

Ground Water | Pollution | Protection Program | Well Permits

Groundwater supplies ALL of our drinking water!

The Floridan aquifer system is located underneath all of Florida and is the primary source of drinking water for Alachua County. (Click HERE to see a map of the Floridan aquifer.) Water is stored and flows through porous limestone and dolomite formations. The shallow water of the Floridan aquifer system is recharged primarily by rain. Rain water soaks into the ground in the western part of the county where the aquifer is unconfined, which means there is only sand lying above the limestone and dolomite. In eastern Alachua County the Floridan aquifer is overlain by clay, sand, and carbonate sequences called the Hawthorn Group. This clay layer keeps rainwater on the surface and causes it to run off and form the surface water streams, lakes and wetlands in eastern Alachua County. The map below shows the abundance of surface waters in the eastern part of the county. Many of these surface waters eventually end up recharging the Floridan aquifer system through sinkholes or swallets, which are sinkholes that swallow up a portion or all of a stream's flow.

Click HERE to see an enlarged version of this map.

Where's all the Water Going?

The water in the Floridan aquifer beneath Alachua County is slowly moving northwest to the springs along the Santa Fe and Suwannee Rivers where they discharge into these rivers. We are working on a map to show the movement of groundwater and will post it as soon as it is ready. In many parts of Florida the overuse of groundwater for irrigation of non-agricultural landscapes has caused water shortages requiring the use of other sources such as lakes, rivers and even the desalination of salt water. The irresponsible and wasteful use of groundwater has lowered the potentiometric surface (water table elevation) of the Floridan aquifer system, which means there is less water in the aquifer since rainfall can not replace what is being used. The lowering of the potentiometric surface has caused some springs to stop flowing and wells to go dry, requiring people to drill their wells deeper.

There are many ways you can help to conserve water!

Reduce the area of turf in your yard