WATER TABLE - WHAT IS IT

Make each thing as simple as possible – but no simpler (Einstein)
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Hi all
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There has been some interesting discussion about the “Water Table” here in South Florida as regards the level of our lakes.
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What is this all about;
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let’s have a look.

First a few acronyms:

USGS: United States Geological Survey

NGVD: National Geodetic Vertical Datum (A simplified view is Mean Sea Level-

DATUM: A piece of Data
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That should do it-
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The USGS operates National, near real time, data collection systems. They rely upon information collected by thousands of sensors and are coordinated in mainframe computational facilities. One of the items they monitor is Water Table Levels.

For this exercise we will zero in of the 214 monitoring stations here in Florida and more particularly
on those stations in Palm Beach County:

REF: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/fl/nwis/current/?type=gw
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At the Referenced Web site you may see graphics for Jupiter, Tequesta and Boca Raton: and 211 other sensor sites in Florida What do these graphics tell us:

Jupiter: Land surface Datum Plane is 25.1 Feet above NGVD
Water level is circa 23 Feet above NGVD hence the mean level is 2 feet below the surface; we should be so lucky.—
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Tequesta: Land surface Datum Plane is 14.5 feet above NGVD
Water level is circa 1.2 feet above NGVD hence the mean water level is 13.3 feet below the surface
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Boca Raton: Land surface Datum Plane is 18.7 feet above NGVD
Water level is circa -.50 feet below NGVD hence mean water level 19.2 feet below the surface.

Folks; it’s hard to beat these numbers, look at the graphics; the levels have been worse but they are not good.

It not impossible, but it would take an incredible volume of water to fill our lakes.

Dave Israel

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In removing the disfunctional graphics, I lost the Comment stream; fortunately I had them backed up elsewhere.

The two comments are pasted below.
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1 said...
Very interesting data David but how does it explain the Cypress Lake situation, where according to Elaine, the water level is about 2 feet below the turf line?

Ours seems to be about 5 feet.If it is impossible!!!!! or not realistic!!!!!to refill our lakes, what are the options available to ensure that we are not looking at a River of Grass or a Swamp in the coming years?

Being a snowbird, I never saw it, but apparently the lakes are full during the rainy season or when a Hurricane hits.

How can we conserve that water level?

Lake Okeechobee was below 10 feet last year or the year before and now it is above 13 feet. How come they were able to maintain that level and not us?

And there is still Cypress Lake which is not as low as us while being on the same water table level.

Could it be that they have maintained a regular purchase of recycled water while we did not?

We are still not getting our agreed contractual capacity of recycled water everyday.

Can you find out from the public records the amount of water sold to each contractor by the County and do you have any comments on my questions above?

Thanks.

Andre

There must be a reason.

Andre
Feb 11, 2009 8:34:00 PM


CVBLOGGER said...
Hi Andre,

The thing about Cypress Lakes, as noted by Elaine, is that they are allocated up to 700K gallons daily and have much less Water surface.

I believe we should try taking our full quota daily for 1 month and see if we can gain any ground; my only point being, it's going to be a hard slog.

Sorry about the graphics not opening I will take a look at the problem, and if I cannot fix; I will take the graphics down.

They may be seen at the referenced site.

In order to keep the level high, one could line the lakes. This is tricky in reverse; as when the water table rises things could become troublesome.

We could try negotiating for a higher limit but there is an out in the agreement if insufficient Reclaimed water is available, the Reclaimed water limit may be reduced.

Lake Okeechobee is a different kettle-of-fish; it is a real lake, tied into the flood control system of all of Southern Florida.Keep in mind that our, so called lakes and canals, are really Catch-Basins and Drainage-Ditches respectively.

Dave Israel