Florida Lake now completely empty

Originally posted by getreadyalready

Originally posted by votan
Did you see any Nestle trucks about pumping for water to put into some nice plastic bottles for you to drink at the local convenience store??

There is a big issue with Nestle wanting to start bottling from the Wacissa Spring just about 6 miles from my house! So far residents and county commissioners have kept them at bay. There are a lot of yard signs around this area saying "Say NO to Nestle."

It is good that they are taking a stand against but they can find technicalities to still do it or just flat out do it by stealth.

reply to post by GuidedKill


I agree with all except it doesn't take that long to drain. Once the sink hole opens up, it drains in under a week. This time it took 3 days.

US Drought Map

If you look at that map, you will see dark red for severe drought from Atlanta arching west and south. The tip of the red where it crosses the Florida Border in the panhandle is precisely the location of this lake.

So, if that is the area feeding the aquifer, then it is going to take an enormous amount of rain to begin to recover from the drought.

If I were a betting man, and I am, then I would guess there are going to be some tropical storms or hurricanes that follow that very path this year. Nature has a way of finding an equilibrium, and I have a feeling a bunch of rain is in store for that red swoop.

Originally posted by votan

Originally posted by getreadyalready

Originally posted by votan
Did you see any Nestle trucks about pumping for water to put into some nice plastic bottles for you to drink at the local convenience store??

There is a big issue with Nestle wanting to start bottling from the Wacissa Spring just about 6 miles from my house! So far residents and county commissioners have kept them at bay. There are a lot of yard signs around this area saying "Say NO to Nestle."

It is good that they are taking a stand against but they can find technicalities to still do it or just flat out do it by stealth.

We aren't far from Tallahassee, but this little area around Wacissa Springs is not an area someone would want to do something by stealth, or something unapproved by the residents. There are a bunch of old-timey swamp and country folks living around that spring and river. I don't think a stealth operation would fare to well, they will need the county and city hyping it up, marketing it to the people, and providing lawful protection for the operation.

reply to post by getreadyalready


Your are correct, I really meant the water aquifer itself. The conditions leading up to the lake draining are a long time in the making. The lake itself can drain in under a week. I have seen it with my own two eyes as well, pretty amazing. My grandfather still lives in Havana and I go over to see him once a month. When the lake is full its a really stunning place.

reply to post by votan


I believe many years ago a "stealth" operation would have been the route they chose. They kind of pulled that off in GA by courting the politicians and not consulting the public. With more people becoming aware of this water theft I'm 100% positive there is no chance of stealing it again without us knowing. I live in FL but would gladly travel to GA to fight along side GA residents for our life line.

Back in the 1800's the Florida logging industry encountered the sinkhole phenomena trying to float Cypress logs down inland waterways to the mills. The logs would get sucked down sinkholes and pop up 40 miles away after a couple months. Must be some outfit that could trace the underground flow from your lake using an environmentally safe marker?

reply to post by Cauliflower


Floridan Water Aquifer is well mapped. We know where it generally starts and know most places it flows out.

They should try to plug the hole

reply to post by Juggernog


There are much bigger holes in this country that need to be plugged. Lets leave this one in mother natures hands,

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by Sol23

 

There were a lot more pics on This link, and there are probably a million more out there to be had. Local businesses around the lake have tons of interesting pics, the very best ones are in black and white from way back!

Anyhow, on that link are a couple of pics from the bottom of the sinkhole looking upwards, but there are several other sinkholes as well. I don't know how far they have explored the sinks. For that much water to escape, they must be pretty massive.

Cool will be back after work
S & F

When it fills up again, where does the water come from?

reply to post by bjarneorn


It comes from under the ground.

I love kicking around in dry lake beds, I have found wallets, eye glasses, lots of fishing poles, and rings.

Get yourself a metal detector and poke around.

Someone tell me about the LAKE SIZE or greater hole all this water and fish fell into.

Could it be that this water is now forming it's own underground lake and the fish are all still there? (except the ones that didn't go down the hole)

I'd like to see these Indian camps underground.It would be cool to have a real underground cave dwelling population in a magical land of underground lakes.

My lake in Florida has been going down for several years now. We have been in a terrible drought for several years. I am expecting a rainy year and maybe several. We are on a 10 year cycle here, but we have been consistently lower over the last few decades. This is due to water usage north of us. Pretty common problem across the USA.

There was a lake that went from the gulf to Gainesville over a hundred years ago. It was used by shipping companies bringing goods into the central Florida area. The lake drained in a matter of days stranding some big boats inland. That lake never refilled. That is a possibility for the Wakulla area as well.

Water management has been irresponsible with water use permits. They always renew permits and hardly ever refuse one especially if the permit is expensive. I have argued with them on many occasions. One memorable time was when the local government wanted to drill a well near my house and feed the water about 20 miles away to a new development. The Council-members all voted for the permit (Except for 1) before the hearing. The next day the hearing was held and they moved the meeting 3 times that day. They then allowed the water management people and their hired "Experts" while being televised as is the rule here. They took a break before hearing any questions from the pesky residents during which they sent the camera crew home. Eventually the residents prevailed, but these a-holes are still getting elected as if nothing happened. Most of their supporters never knew what happened or were paid off by the developers just like the council-members.

Point is that water is the next oil and if you want water on your property in the future you had better fight for it now because as with everything that can be monetized water is very lucrative. China is sending ships here to fill up with fresh water so it's getting bad. In my lifetime we will see a dramatic change in farming and home water usage due to a fresh water shortage that will never rebound. The water is being used much faster than it can be replenished and the water used does not get recycled. Overall our water management districts are just useless if not dangerous. As with everything it all comes down to money and they are all on the take.

Mother nature has a way of fixing things. It will likely come to pass that water becomes tainted and cannot be consumed without special treatment straight out of the ground. The rich will take the best water sources and pump it into their toilets while they watch the poor die of thirst and disease. I say more power to them. Their money is only worth what we agree it is worth. Let them eat their money because crops will refuse to grow even with magical monsanto juice being sprayed on it. Mother nature knows a threat when she sees one. She will respond soon. It will likely get ugly so get your plan worked out now for storing water and keeping it healthy.

To be prepared really is not hard and does not take a lot of space. Plants can clean water good enough for human consumption. Aquaponics uses fish and plants with a recirculating water system that drops waste at the plant roots and circulates clean water back to the fish tank. the water the fish live in and the returning water from the plants is good enough to consume. The fish can be eaten and also the plants. Your whole family can be fed fresh food daily with a small aquaponics setup taking no more space than an inground pool. Actually, an inground pool is perfect for aquaponics using the deep end for the fish and the rest for plants and chickens.

Don't be surprised if new laws are enacted forcing you to stop collecting water from rain or draw water from the ground. As long as there is money and people who want it these things will come to pass. There is entirely too much demand on our aquifers and surface water. That will only get worse in the future. Since people are the end users and require fresh water to live they must also be the ones to take responsibility for their own actions. That means being good stewards of their environment and ending wasteful practices. Everyone needs to be able to replenish every drop of water they use every day. That is a tall order since more than half live in apartments in the city.

That being said, I don't see much future for the people in the cities when the cities cannot provide water for them.

Originally posted by buddha
We have ALL your water in England.
we have heavy rain warnings today.

but we still have a hose pipe bann???
that means we can not use a hose to water the garden.
there is not enough water?!?!
All the grass is becoming a swamp.

There was a programme on it in April. The rain isn't able to get to the aquifers we have that help provide water to our homes. The reason is we have had 2 dry winters here (when the aquifers are usually replenished) and the warmer weather has made the ground hard, meaning less water is absorbed into the ground. Along with the usual urbanisation making it even harder to get into the ground because there is just concrete everywhere. I learnt about this in Geography at school. It's the reason for unusual flooding etc. The water can't get to where it needs to go.

Interesting story.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
I've heard stories from life-long residents of times where the news broadcasts would ask people to run out and save the fish. People would scoop giant bass and catfish out of little mud puddles all over the lake and take them home to keep them from just dying and going to waste. They didn't repopulate the lake, they just ate them, but it was still better than letting them just die needlessly.

I've also seen pictures in local businesses of a whirlpool over the sink hole, and boats tied off trying to keep other boats from being sucked in. Apparently years ago they also dumped 100s of tons of construction debris down the main sinkhole, dumptruck after dumptruck coming out and trying to plug the hole, but it drained again anyway.

As for the fish, I can only guess that the fish come back fairly quickly, because it is a great fishing destination, but it has historically drained every 25 years, so the fish population must recover pretty quickly. I would also guess that since it is now a state park, they probably re-stock it with some of the fish to get the tourism kickstarted back up.

From what I know the fish will travel back through the channel,
and up through the freshwater creek/stream that has
supplied the lake with water when it fills back up, the
fish travel back in.. The fish are not all that dumb either
so they knew when the lake was starting to dry up and most
of them swam to a connected body of water.. Some will get caught up
of course, and I am sure it smells atrocious.. Great thread s and f fl
is really a nice place.

reply to post by getreadyalready


Just be careful, don't get confused on what hole your approaching

You know how when you add more water to a toilet it flushes?

That's my thought on what may be happening given the increased amount of rain and sudden drain off...

Or


The increased rain also had an impact on the underground structures