SPECIAL PUBLICATION NO. 27


mit for construction of a storm water disposal system associated with
mining of peat in central Florida (Putnam County).

 The Effect of Peat Mining on Water Resources

 WATER RESOURCES IN AN UNDISTURBED SYSTEM

 The mining of peat will cause changes in the hydrologic budget associ-
ated with a peatland. The changes could be helpful or detrimental, but
the system will change. In order to better understand the changes which
are discussed in the next portion of the text, it is instructive to examine
the system as it operates naturally.
 The hydrologic cycle is used by geologists to describe what happens to
water which falls to the earth as precipitation. The water which falls as
precipitation has a number of possible fates. It may evaporate from fall-
ing rain and never reach the earth's surface. It may be taken up by the
roots of plants, carried to the leaves and returned to the atmosphere by
transpiration (the process by which the foliage of plants releases water
vapor). Evaporation, which returns water to the atmosphere, occurs
from soil, from the surfaces of lakes, rivers and oceans, even from the
dew which collects on plants. Some portion of the rain which falls does
reach the earth's surface and flows across it to reach lakes, streams or
possibly the ocean. This portion is referred to as runoff. Some part of
rainfall soaks into the ground (infiltration). A portion of the water which
soaks into the ground will make its way slowly to streams or lakes, and in
certain areas, some of this water may enter a porous and permeable rock
unit referred to as an aquifer.
 For a given geographic area, geologists may estimate the proportion of
water which is lost to the processes of evaporation and transpiration.
Measurements are made so that geologists are familiar with average
values of stream discharge, and lake levels. The depth to the water table
may be measured. (The water table is the level below which pores in the
rock or sediments are filled with water and above which they are partly
or totally filled with air). The measurements may be used to make up a
hydrologic (water) budget for a given area. Thus, water resources are a
system. If one aspect of the system is modified, other aspects change in
response to the modification.

 WATER RESOURCE PARAMETERS AFFECTED BY PEAT MINING

 This discussion is primarily from a study of environmental issues asso-
ciated with peat mining, completed for the U.S. Department of Energy by
King, et al., 1980.
 In a study which deals solely with environmental issues arising from
mining of peat, King, et al. (1980) report that the development required
for mining will modify natural groundwater and surface water character-