Skip to Content Skip to Main Menu Skip to Global Menu
Colclough Lake Colclough Lake
Home Citizen Services Residents Businesses Visitors Emergency Services County Offices
You are here: Home > County Offices > Environmental Protection > Water Resources
divider

Water Resources

In the News...

What can you do to conserve water! Click HERE to read about it.

Know Your Watering Day!

Most plants slow down during the winter and require little to no irrigation. With the return of Eastern Standard Time, we are back to one day a week watering restrictions. Residential irrigation is allowed for odd numbered addresses on Saturdays and even numbered houseson Sunday.

 

 

Keeping Grass off the Streets!

 Join lawn care professionals, Alachua County, the City of Gainesville, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in keeping grass clippings and leaves out of our streets, stormwater collection systems, and local waterways. Click HERE to learn why this is important and how you can help!

 

 

   Water Resources Protection Programs

Alachua County Environmental Protection Department (ACEPD)  Water Resources Program protects our water resources by monitoring surface waters, groundwater, springs, and wastewater and enforcing the Water Quality Code and Hazardous Materials Code. ACEPD is also involved with public education and citizen volunteer groups.

The Alachua County Forever Program also protects our water by preserving  sensitive lands. The Natural Resources Program protects our water by preserving surface waters and associated wetlands, and up to 150 feet of upland buffer, as well as strategic ecosystems, significant habitat, significant geologic features, listed species habitat,  and floodplains in their natural state, parcel by parcel, throughout the entire county!

Water Resources Benchmarks

Fourth Quarter 2011

  • Inspections of Regulated Facilities - 168
  • Complaints and Spills Investigations - 42
  • Water Quality Monitoring Locations - 58
  • Outreach and Public Events Meetings - 11

   Rain Barrels, Rain Gardens, Oh My!

Keep stormwater on your property by using these fun Low Impact Development (LID) techniques. Rain barrels and cisterns can be used to collect water from your roof, which you can then use for watering plants and such. Rain gardens are depressed gardens designed to temporarily hold water and let it slowly trickle back into the aquifer. Learn more at GainesvilleCreeks.org.

Best Management Practices (BMP)

Did you know simple things like washing your car and pressure washing can pollute our creeks if not done carefully?

If you want to learn how to minimize the amount of pollution from your home and business, check out our new pamphlets on various Best Management Practices (BMPs) for protecting our water. Click Here to see them all!

We are always in a Watershed!

Even if you can't see a creek or lake from your house, it is likely that what you do at your house and in your yard affects local water quality. When it rains water runs off (called stormwater) our roofs, driveways, and other hard surfaces and travels through the stormwater collection system and most likely discharges to a creek without any treatment. Most of our creeks discharge to the aquifer (our drinking water) through sinkholes.

Be a Sollution to Pollution- check out our BMPs and fact sheets!

Download a map of Alachua County Watersheds!

  Visit our Friends at Gainesvillecreeks.org

"We otter have clean water!"

Gainesvillecreeks.org is your source of information on the interdependent creeks, watersheds and wetlands in Gainesville, Florida. Learn how our community cares for water through stormwater management, and learn how you can help keep your local waterways beautiful and healthy.

  Fish Kills in Alachua County

Fish kills occur for several reasons, as temperatures rise and days lengthen in summer months algal blooms canFish Kill occur as a result of elevated nutrients in lakes in Alachua County.  When shallow organic rich lakes receive high nutrient loads algae populations grow rapidly. At night when the algae stop photosynthesizing they sink and decompose which removes oxygen from the water column and decreases the dissolved oxygen in the lake.  Water quality regulations and fish require dissolved oxygen levels above 5 mg/L and levels below this can cause fish to die. During the day dissolved oxygen level will increase because of the algal photosynthesis, and fish deaths will decrease during the day.  Also, some fish species are not able to survive low winter temperatures and shallow lakes can decrease in temperature substantially during prolonged periods of freezing air temperatures. For information on Alachua county waters with dates of fish kills Click HERE.

  For more information on Fish kills visit:
http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/reported-fish-kills-abnormalities/
and to report a fish kill in a water body near you visit: 
http://research.myfwc.com/fishkill/submit.asp

 

Report Creek Crimes with your Smart Phone!

We recently deployed two free applications for smart phones that empower citizens to help identify and report  environmental problems in the County.

These smart phone applications include:  What's Invasive (allows citizens to help the County map the location of invasive, exotic plants that are damaging local natural areas and farmland. Click here to read more), and Creek Watch (allows users to locate and report the presence of trash and other pollution in area waterways. Click here for more information).

 

This website is a public service. Please read the Legal Disclaimer. Website designed and engineered by Alachua County ITS.Applications Division Version 2010 (v1.0)

Under Florida law (Statute 119.011), all information, including e-mail, written letters, documents and phone messages, sent to the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners is subject to Public Records law. This includes the sender's e-mail address, home address or phone number if shown in the message, the content of the message and any associated attachments to the mail. Also please be aware that electronic correspondence (e-mail) is made available on the Commission's public archive site immediately upon being sent. Instead, contact Alachua County Offices by phone or in writing.