GA/FL Ground water levels still low? Critical?

[Rhettley]

Even after all the rain we've had this year, especially in July, I keep reading about ramps on usable on the lakes around Tallahassee. I'm the 6th generation owner of some property in Baker County, GA, which is SW of Albany and just west of Newton. That area has the Flint to the east and the Chickasawhatchee Creek to the west. There are numerous natural dish pan ponds in the area. They look more like something you'd see in FL than in GA. These are all spring fed with no creek inflows. In the early 80's they got low but didn't dry up. My great grandfather said at the time he had never seen them get nearly that low and he was almost 90 at the time and had lived on the property his whole life. When I moved back home from Texas in 2000 the area ponds had almost dried up and by 2001 they were nothing but grass fields. Even the areas where the springs upwelled were just dry dirt. They got about 3/4 of the water back around 2003 and bass got in and got up to about 4 pounds before the ponds all dried up again. Twice since then they have had a little water on the bottom but it has dried up quickly like it is actually going back into the springs.
I was there in June and about 1/3 of the pond bottom had water on it but the pond grass was taller than the water. I was there yesterday and was hopeful the water level would be up. I figured with 13 inches showing on the Flint River rain gauge for the month of July hopefully the aquifer had come up enough to open the springs again. I think there was actually LESS water in there than what I saw in June... I rode and looked at two other ponds and they were the same way. I call these ponds but they are probably 80 to 300 acres each. They are usually 6' to 9' in the deepest holes but average 4' to 5'. I've heard rumors Miller Brewing in Albany is causing some of our aquifer problems and that might be true. I think the main culprit is all the pivot irrigation systems that have been put in over the last 20 years. You can look at the satellite photo and the whole area is covered with circular fields. Those big pipes pump a huge amount of water out of the ground to keep the fields green. When I was a kid they irrigated out of the pond and it never seemed to affect it. Now there are two pivots within a 1/4 mile of the pond. I'm beginning to think my pond is gone and I now have a big open grass field.
I took some pictures yesterday and even found a skeleton of what was probably an 8 foot alligator in the edge of the woods by the pond.
This is what I used to have... It was actually low at this point. The water should have been up almost to the oak limb. You can see a green grass line and sand line where the pond edge should be.



These are all the circular fields with pivot systems. My pond is circled in red at about 12 o'clock in this photo.


These were taken Friday July 26, 2013 They start in the SW corner and progress clockwise around most of what should be the pond. I'd be standing in thigh deep water from where I took these if the pond was full. There is water out there in the middle but the pond grass is tall enough that you can't see any of the water.










The gators that couldn't make it to the river haven't got anywhere to go. I'm sure the woods are full of skeletons of gators that couldn't get to the river because of fences or got to worn down in drying up ponds.

[reelbad]

To add a little to this subject, I think the reason we don't have more water in the ponds and lakes such as Lake Jackson in Tallahassee is because of all the development and the holding ponds that are required to be built to hold runoff. I have been in Tallahassee since 1955 and have seen Jackson dry on many occasions and still recover quickly after several hard rains. I don't look for that to happen any more.

[robbankston]

All those pivot irrigations are probably sod farms. Because you know the world needs more sod.

[Rhettley]

These are all general agriculture fields around here. I think the closest sod farm is over near Tifton. These fields grow wheat, corn, cotton, and peanuts usually. I've seen the pumps running and irrigating when the low parts of the field were flooded from rain. It's just a waste to be irrigating when the tires on the system are actually under water.

[robbankston]

There are sod farms around cordele and Vienna. Also a 1 or 2 coming into Leesburg from Americus. I've seen them watering flooded fields to. Just like I've seen folks watering the grass when it's raining.

[mjsigns]

All those pivot irrigations are probably sod farms. Because you know the world needs more sod.

Corn requires irrigation more than peanuts, soy beans or even cotton. The pivot irrigation systems you see are more likely to be corn. .02

[Reel Cowboy]

All those pivot irrigations are probably sod farms. Because you know the world needs more sod.

Corn requires irrigation more than peanuts, soy beans or even cotton. The pivot irrigation systems you see are more likely to be corn. .02

It's pretty hard to dry cotton out but corn is just looking for a reason to die.

[mjsigns]

It's pretty hard to dry cotton out but corn is just looking for a reason to die.

Ditto that Cowboy

[tin can]

I was curious the other day, and looked at the National Weather Service rainfall data for this year. We got less than .5" of rain in May. Overall, for the year we are about 6" above normal. We've had several dry years. I'm guessing, as low as the water table has been, it's going to take much more than 6" above normal to bring it back.

[Rhettley]

Tin Can I believe you are right. I thought we were a lot higher than that above average. It looks like Dorian is reforming and heading our way late in the week. Maybe that will just be a big rain event.

I haven't looked at the actual stats but I've heard we have been in a drought for about 15 years now that actually rivals the Dust Bowl days. It's going to take some time to recover. In the mean time I'll hunt dove instead of ducks.

[FUTCHCAIRO]

BOY, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU FELLAS BUT HERE ON THE SOUTH FORTY WE HAVE HAD 47 1/2 INCHES OF RAIN SINCE THE FIRST OF JUNE, PRIOR TO THAT WE HAD 21 INCHES OF RAIN FROM JAN. TO JUNE. I CAN NOT GET INTO THE FIELDS WITH THE TRACTOR. FARMERS THAT HAVE PLANTED PEANUTS ARE GETTING MOLD AND FUNGUS IN THEIR CROPS AND CAN NOT GET INTO THE FIELDS TO SPRAY , THE FIELDS OF CORN AROUND HERE HAVE STALKS STARTING TO FALL OVER BECAUSE THE SOIL IS SO WET THE ROOTS CAN NOT HOLD IT UP. THE FARMERS THAT ARE GROWING SILAGE HAVE BEAUTIFUL FIELDS OF CROPS BUT UNLESS A LOT OF THIS WATER DRAINS OFF WITHOUT ADDITIONAL RAIN THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HARVEST THEIR CROPS. OUR AREA GENERALLY GETS AN AVERAGE OF 52 INCHES OF RAIN ALL YEAR LONG, WE HAVE SURPASSED THIS AMOUNT A LONG WAY BACK. IT IS TRUE, WE HAVE HAD DRY YEARS FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS AND THE WATER TABLE WAS DOWN CONSIDERABLE , IT IS BACK UP AND THEN SOME, I WOULD WELCOME NO RAIN FOR THE NEXT 5-6 WEEKS, THIS WOULD GIVE US WEATHER WHERE WE COULD CUT HAY, MAYBE SPRAY OTHER CROPS IF THEY HAVE NOT DIED DUE TO TOO MUCH RAIN, WOULD AT LEAST BE ABLE TO GET BACK INTO THE FIELDS.
PA
SEMPER FI

[Rhettley]

It took a few minute but I found the GA weather site that shows annual and year to date rainfall for specific areas.
http://www.griffin.uga.edu/aemn/cgi-bin ... &report=rf
Newton's long term average is about 34 inches at this point in the year and so far there has been a little over 40 inches so 6 inches above average isn't going to get that aquifer recharged yet. The problem is the last three years it shows the rainfall at this point in the year was around 25 inches. I'm sure it was the same way back about 10 years to 2000 or even earlier.

[Barhopr]

Are you sure these are spring ( auquifer-fed) ponds? Lots of ground water/run-off ponds up that way.
I attached a section of a soil/ water report that includes Rockhole pond to the west and Brown pond to the east.

Here's the link to the site if any of you ever want to run your own soil reports( should you have trouble going to sleep at night), Click on " Start WSS"

[Dial Tone]

http://us.yhs4.search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt= ... 2nsec3.pdf
Where are the recharge areas for the aquifer.. Ground water here up to 8ft from 11ft. Shallow well is happy happy happy.

[CSMarine]

I have a house at Keaton Beach and also one about twenty miles south of Albany, Georgia. When we started building our house at Keaton in 2005, the water table on my property was only about two foot below the surface. We had to raise the drain field just to get our septic system to pass. Water stood about two foot deep in a shallow catch pond on the edge of my property almost year round. We were catching bream, bass and shellcracker in the ditches along Keaton Beach Road, just as we had been doing since I was a kid.
In 2006 all that changed. The ponds all went dry. The water table dropped so far that many of my neighbors had to drop a couple more sections of pipe on their wells to get back to good water. Even the upper Enconfina went bone dry.
In Georgia I had to drill a completely new well, dropping down to 320 feet just to hit water. It's pretty much stayed that way since 2006. Even with all the rain, not much has actully changed long enough to call it change. A little water is standing in the ditches along Keaton Beach Road, but that's drying up fairly fast. The only real change I've seen is all that blasted black swamp water run off from large sections of clear-cuts of cypress and hardwood is flooding the areas where I usually fish for Reds and gator Trout. Those areas are now holding some very large bream, bass and Shell cracker. Go figure! Things are getting so screwed up that maybe soon we'll be catching trout and reds in the ditches along Keaton beach road.