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I picked this up because I was all the way in the back in the photo behind John Rose and Barry Miller, exiting Wakulla springs. The photo has Jess Armantrout, Barry Miller, John Rose, myself, Jarrod Jablonski, and George Irvine's argon bottle, after JJ, George, and Brent just did a 120 minute gas dive in Wakulla. The Miami Herald, Sunday, June 30, 1996, page 1-B (Florida section) 'The Mt. Everest of cave diving' Divers map the underwater catacombs of Wakulla Springs By Michael Browning Herald Staff Writer WAKULLA SPRINGS - Subterranean cathedrals of sapphire-blue water are being slowly mapped here by a team of intrepid volunteer divers whose lantern beams shine 60 million years into the past. "More people have walked on the moon than have dived into some of these tunnels," said Rick Sankey, 29, a member of the Woodville Karst Plain Project, which aims to trace the underwater catacomb of caves that reaches miles back from the great entrance to Wakulla Springs, up to the deep limestone craters of the Leon Sinks and beyond. Breathing a 50-50 mix of helium and oxygen (kens note: our bottom mix is either 14/45 or 12/50 depending on the tunnel, I think the writer got 50% helium and 50% air confused), carrying underwater compasses and notepads, decompressing four hours for every 45 minutes of diving time, using battery powered scooters to pull them at two miles per hour against the current, the divers are moving deeper and deeper into the drowned labyrinth of limestone galleries that form the aquifer. At depths of up to 300 feet, they are probing the very foundations of Florida, finding their way through tremendous freshets of crystal water, upwelling from caverns of sempiternal night. "This is the Mount Everest of cave diving," said Todd Kincaid, a geology graduate student at the University of Wyoming and a member of the team. "This is the largest known underwater cave system in the United States." For about five years now, the diving team led by George Irvine, a Fort Lauderdale broker, has been coming to Wakulla on weekends, slowly and painstakingly tracing out the tangle of tunnels that leads northward, underground, to the Leon Sinks. Irvine swims 4,000 meters a day to stay in shape for the rigorous dives. After bubbling up at Wakulla Springs, much of the water finds its way south to the Gulf of Mexico via the Wakulla River. Some of it stays underground all the way, emptying out two miles offshore in the Gulf. The outflow is gigantic - 240 million gallons a day, enough to provide every resident of the state with 17 gallons apiece, daily. The region has been called a water-Kuwait, so rich are the overbrimming crystal springs here. Lately, however, there are signs that man-made changes on the surface of the land may be affecting the waters deep beneath it. So-called "dark water," filled with tannin and decaying vegatable matter, is showing up in the usually transparent spring water at various points along the cave network. So far the dark water seems harmless, but its origin is a puzzle. "We don't know where it is coming from, but it seems to be getting worse," project director Irvine said. "But if we can find the source, we may be able to get a handle on it." "Three years ago the water was perfectly clear 60 to 70 percent of the time. Now it is clear only about 12 percent of the time," said Sankey. "We need to find out what's causing this. If it goes on, if it gets worse, then 20 years from now people may not be able to enjoy Wakulla Springs anymore." More is at stake then glass-bottomed pleasure boat rides. The drinking water for Leon and Wakulla counties comes from over 10,000 wells driven into the very aquifer Irvine and his team are exploring. Lake water empties into the karst network, and stormwater runoff from roads, parking lots, lawns and golf courses seems to be finding its way into the lakes. "When you dive, you can see for yourself how permeable the ground is here," Irvine said. "At the Leon Sinks, we've mapped underground from Sullivan Sink to Turner sink. Two weekends ago we connected Big Dismal Sink to Leon Sinks. It's all connected. We're proving that." Stormwater runoff As Tallahassee grows, so does it's stormwater runoff, says FSU aquatic biologist Skip Livingston. "Tallahassee presents a nice model for study, because we are just developing," Livinston said. "These lakes are really sensitive. It doesn't take much to destroy them. Everything that goes in them, stays in them. It doesn't come out. They are not running rivers. I'm not very popular for saying this. A lot of people wish I'd just shut up. But we are polluting the sources of our drinking water." As an example, Livingston points to chemical analyses of the water above the Lake Lafayette sinkhole. Lake Lafayette and it's associated lowlands cover 19.7 square miles, and get runoff from some of the most intensely developed parts of Tallahassee, including 8,000 acres ofhomes, stores and highways. Hundreds of creosote-treated railroad crossties were dumped in the lake years ago, presumably from a railroad line that crosses it. An asphalt plant is also in the vicinity. Livinston was not surprised, then, to discover high concentrations of silica, orthophosphorous, ammonia, chlorophyll and nitrogen compounds in the lake. "In fact," the scientist said, "some of the worst water in the lake is right over this sinkhole. The chemistry of that water is absolutely terrible." But other water specialists say Livingston is an alarmist. "We have been collecting data from public wells, private wells and monitoring wells from all around Tallahassee for nearly 15 years," said Bill Leseman, water quality administrator for the city. "We have not seen any evidence of stormwater contamination of the aquifer." Scientists divided The debate over water quality in Tallahassee resembles the debate over the ozone layer for the whole atmosphere. Scientists are divided, the experiment is still under way, and the results so far are equivocal. The vast, mazey complexity of the aquifer - it reaches all the way up to South Carolina - and the tremendous volumes of water flowing through it, make it difficult to predict when, where, or if ever stormwater pollution will dribble out of a kitchen tap. The maps the divers are making are handed over to the state Department of Environmental Protection for study. "It's complicated scientifically so it can be disputed while it's happening," Livingston acknowledged. "But after it has happened, then you're in a hell of a fix. Then it's too late." 'It's dazzling down there' In the meantime, Irvine and his divers are exploring caves of liquid crystal where the cold water is still diamond-clear in most places. "I can't tell you what it's like, it's dazzling down there," said Sankey. "The walls are mostly white, but sometimes the caverns are so huge you can't see to the opposite side. It's just one big mass of blue when you shine your light through it. There's one cave 200 feet across and 180 feet high from floor to ceiling." (note: Rick, which one? I can name at least 4 I've seen) "People ask me what it's like," said Bill Mee, a biomedical engineer who is also one of the divers. (note: Bill also works as our in-house paleontologist coming up with new theories on the Mastodon bones in Wakulla). "And I tell them it's like traveling back in time. At 300 feet you are looking back 60 million years ago. There are bones of mastodons, bisons, camels, sloths on the floors of these caves. Sometimes you know you are the first human being ever to see a certain tunnel." Amid the cobolt immensity of the caverns, the divers sometimes see a single narrow shaft of light, penetrating laser-like from a sink far overhead, like an arrow pointing to the world of air they've left behind. It is tempting to swim up towards it, but they can't; the sudden decompression would be fatal. "It's unbelievable down there," Irvine said. "There is a cavern so big you could fit the whole Wakulla Lodge hotel crossways into it. This system goes everywhere." End of article - whew my hands are tired, Ken
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