Meanwhile, In Florida

There's a slick, informative site dedicated to Florida's springs, with lots of eye candy and, of course, ways you, the Floridian, can help.  And by help, they mean lessen your impact on the Floridian aquifer.   Bottom line:  get the hell outta there.  

Or so it seems in this pdf file from Florida's Department of Environmental Protection.

Growing up in Miami, our summer vacations to Alabama, Georgia and other parts of the south inevitably led us past Florida's great spring-based tourist spots,  Weeki Wachee and Silver.  Weeki Wachee was home to "world famous" mermaids, lovely young women in tails sucking air out of garden hoses and posing for the folks behind the enormous glass windows of the "aquatheater" or "aquatorium" or whatever they called it.   I remember my infatuation with it because it seemed like God's swimming pool.  Or at least like color tv, which hadn't been invented yet.  Silver Springs had "world famous" glass bottom boats, and was also the place where they shot"Sea Hunt" in gorgeous black and white. 

Because I'd actually been in swimming pools, which by default have that same mix of crystal clear and turquoise and white, my frame of reference was always how great it would be to go swimming in there.  I never did, sadly.   We didn't have time.  But I'd venture that that's what most of the other patrons felt:  how great would it be if that was my swimming pool.

And so the troubles began.

Forty years later, both of these attractions are covered in algae, the result of too much nitrogen in the water.   The nitrogen comes from agricultural runoff, stormwater pollutants from cars, roads, and chemicals, and the general effluvia that comes from having too many people around.

Fortunately, the State of Florida is trying to address these problems, both in the central part of the state where these two spots are, and elsewhere, by buying up the springs in private hands and attempting some kind of management of them.   In addition, there is greater awareness of the limitations of the once perceived as limitless Floridian Aquifer.

Here in Northern California, on the other hand, our water comes from the Sierra snowmelt.   Which is at its lowest level in years.   But that is another post.