Morrison Spring closed due to fecal matter

[Captain Bil]

How does a spring "outlet" become e-coli contaminated?

Decreased outflow due to aquifer depletion allows the river to back up into the basin easier and easier. River carries all kinds of junk including agricultural runoff, including human and animal waste.

Another local lay theory is that the aquifer itself is becoming more contaminated and is pumping bad water out. That's just some conjecture on the part of a guy I was talking to the other day, I hope that's all wrong. Kind of scary though.

Morrison is closed a lot for health reasons, more and more these past few years.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

[Sludge]

I'm still trying to figure out why Vince would take a CCR to Morrison...

[Danseur]

Septic fields and municipal fertilizer spray on crops...

#### flows downhill.

Sorry for the expletive, butt that is the subject/fecal matter...

[skip]

It is the future of all springs in Florida. The aging of septic systems of houses along the rivers is causing a major increase in e. coli throughout Florida. Fertilizer is not the culprit here, but dairy farms may be a major contributor - they use more water than crops and that water is used to wash down everything to keep conditions sanitary (within the farm, never mind where it goes). I don't recall the figures, but Florida is one of the biggest producers of milk in the Southeast and has seen a dramatic increase in the number of dairy cows recently.

The ultimate cause is the increase in human population. The USA population has increased from 150 million in 1950 to 300 million today. Twice as many people taking a dump, twice as many drinking milk, twice as many cows producing the milk, twice as much water to wash away the manure, twice as much crap getting into the ground water.

Look for more closures year by year, with some becoming more closed more often for longer periods of time, until the Feds redefine "safe limit" and reopen the springs!


skip

[FW]

... Fertilizer is not the culprit here...

Depends on what they use for fertilizer

[Kevin Carlisle]

The actual root cause of the closure as told to me by a local is poison they used to treat the weeds there. He said the bacteria excuse was just that, an excuse. Dont know if he is right or not. Im with Russell on the ccr at morrisons.

[SlowDiver]

Depends on what they use for fertilizer

Couldn't agree more. I live in between two large S. Georgia plantations and where they used to spread a gradual fertilizer made from a petroleum by-product they now spread a chicken manure base and if the wind is blowing in my direction the smell is awful. And one of the plantations borders the Flint River.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[OFG-1]

You guys are crazy. Human intervention does not degrade water quality, the "science" is not convincing, the evidence is empirical at best, no reputable scientist would support this theory. Hell, the next thing you will be trying to convince us of is that the entire climate is changing, bah I say, such a overreaction . Its the overpopulation of deer and their poo that is causing this. Kill the deer, I say. And the turtles, they poo too. And the dogs, cats, aardvarks, muskrats.....all of them crap, why blame this on humans?

[Puttzer]

It is the future of all springs in Florida. The aging of septic systems of houses along the rivers is causing a major increase in e. coli throughout Florida. Fertilizer is not the culprit here, but dairy farms may be a major contributor - they use more water than crops and that water is used to wash down everything to keep conditions sanitary (within the farm, never mind where it goes). I don't recall the figures, but Florida is one of the biggest producers of milk in the Southeast and has seen a dramatic increase in the number of dairy cows recently.

The ultimate cause is the increase in human population. The USA population has increased from 150 million in 1950 to 300 million today. Twice as many people taking a dump, twice as many drinking milk, twice as many cows producing the milk, twice as much water to wash away the manure, twice as much crap getting into the ground water.

Look for more closures year by year, with some becoming more closed more often for longer periods of time, until the Feds redefine "safe limit" and reopen the springs!


skip

I recall a few years ago at one of the cave diving meetings: a state agent lectured explaining that the main source of water contamination was not septic tanks. It was chicken farms and septic tanks were near the bottom of the list and an insignificant source compared to the other sources.

Would like someone more informed than I to chime in and correct me as needed

Richard.

[kensuf]

Another local lay theory is that the aquifer itself is becoming more contaminated and is pumping bad water out. That's just some conjecture on the part of a guy I was talking to the other day, I hope that's all wrong. Kind of scary though.

It's not a lay theory, it can actually happen. http://www.globalunderwaterexplorers...ater-chemistry

The site where the samples collected in the above article has no known sources of surface intrusion, but several samples collected over an eighteen month period produced similar results indicating high concentrations of human coliform bacteria. Dollars to donuts was it was probably a leaking septic tank somewhere in line over the aquifer that caused the particular problems at that location.