Free Well Monitoring in Areas of Columbia County

Ichetucknee Basin AquiferWatch well needs. Columbia City/Rose Sink area is circled in red. See the text, below, for a description of this area that includes road boundaries.

AquiferWatch Needs to Locate More Wells to Monitor in Columbia County

AquiferWatch, with whom the Ichetucknee Alliance is partnering in a water monitoring project in the Ichetucknee Basin, is currently monitoring total nitrogen water pollution levels in 18 wells–but the AquiferWatch team needs to find more wells to monitor in the central part of the Ichetucknee Trace, specifically in the area of Columbia City and Rose Sink. See the map, above, for an indication of that area. If you are familiar with the roads in Columbia County or have a road map, that location can be described as follows:

The southwestern limit of the search area is at the corner CR 137 and Bibby Road in Suwannee County. From that intersection, follow CR 137 north to CR 240 (216^th Street).  From that corner, follow CR 240 east to CR 131 (Tustenugee Ave). From that intersection, follow CR 131 south to SW Herlong  St.  From that intersection, go west along Herlong to the intersection of Herlong, Drew Feagle Road, and SW Treasure Ln.  Draw an imaginary line from SW Herlong west to SW Elim Church Road.  Follow Elim Church Road to the entrance of Ichetucknee State Park and continue going west along Elim Church Road to its intersection with SW Old Spanish Road.  Continue following Old Spanish Road to where it merges into Bibby Road (256^th street) and continue to follow the road west to where it intersects highway 137. 

If you live in this area and are on a well and are willing to have it sampled by AquiferWatch twice each year, or if you know people who live in this area who might be willing to have their wells sampled, please email ichetuckneealliance@gmail.com with the relevant contact information. Our staff assistant will relay that information to the AquiferWatch team, Rick Copeland and Gary Maddox, who will contact you about checking your well to see if it fits their required criteria for monitoring.

Copeland informs us that AquiferWatch will need 10 years of data to draw conclusions about water pollution in the whole study area. This work is important because it will allow scientists and water managers to have a more complete picture of how nitrogen pollution may be affecting water quality in the Ichetucknee. Please help if you can!