A paper by RBC affiliate and Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources Professor Jaivime Evaristo points to interaction between the Okefenokee Swamp and the Upper Floridan Aquifer, refuting a widely held belief that the swamp is isolated from the aquifer below. Using isotopic and hydraulic evidence, Evaristo shows that the Hawthorn Formation between the two bodies isn’t as impermeable as some think.
“Not so isolated: isotopic and hydraulic evidence of vertical connectivity between the Okefenokee Swamp and Floridan Aquifer” was published last month in Environmental Research Water, an Institute of Physics (IOP) journal.
Co-authors include Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources Professor Rhett Jackson and Professor Emeritus Todd Rasmussen.
“The assumption, at least from the modeling world, is that those two systems—the surface system, which is the swamp, and the aquifer—are not talking to each other,” Evaristo said. “That has implications in a lot of ways, because you would be under the impression that it’s safe to be tapping water from the Floridan in the vicinity of the swamp. There are some models out there that are based on that assumption.
“It’s more than an academic exercise, because depending on how much interaction they have, it’s not just a quality issue, it can also be a quantity issue.”
Evaristo’s research showed exchange between the swamp and underlying aquifer through isotope fingerprints and hydraulic measurements.
“This overturns long-held assumptions in the region’s hydrogeologic conceptual model and has implications for water budgets, ecological dynamics, and groundwater management,” the authors said.
Over the past few weeks, multiple media outlets have picked up the story and drawn the connection that interconnectivity would make mining near the Okefenokee even more problematic. Though a conservation deal ended Twin Pines Minerals’ plans on the eastern edge of the swamp, other groups have expressed interest in mining the area.
Read some of the coverage:
The Georgia Press Association’s Capitol Beat
CBS News (on the deal to save the swamp)