FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY


wood forest. A sand and gravel parking lot borders the east side of the spring pool.

BIG SPRING (BIG BLUE SPRING) Lat. 300 19' 39.8" N, Long. 83 59' 05.4" W (NW14 SE4
NW% sec. 12, T. 2 S, R. 3 E). This spring is located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) south of
Spring No. 2 on the east side of the Wacissa River. It has two spring runs. The larger is
about 66 ft (20 m) wide and flows 1300 ft (400 m) northwest and west to the Wacissa River.
The other run is about 33 ft (10 m) wide and it flows southwest 1000 ft (300 m) to the
Wacissa. Big Spring has one main vent nearly 6 ft (2 m) in diameter at the bottom of the
circular spring pool. Pool diameter is 150 ft (47 m) northwest to southeast, 160 ft (48 m)
northeast to southwest. Maximum depth of pool is 42 ft (12.8 m). The water is light green-
ish blue with large particles suspended, and the bottom is just visible. A boil is present on
pool surface. Hydrilla covers nearly 50% of the depression, and some algae is present.
There is no high ground immediately near the spring. The surrounding lowland forest is
completely intact and is a mixture of cypress, hardwoods, and cabbage palm. A rope swing
is located on the southwest side of the pool, and there is a floating wooden platform near the
beginning of the larger spring run.

Utilization Many of these springs are used as swimming and recreation areas, especially
Spring No. 2 and Big Spring. The land around entire Wacissa River was purchased by the
state of Florida, Conservation and Recreation Lands (CARL).

Discharge Historical measurements reported are a combined total for the northwest and
southwest runs of Big Spring (Rosenau et al., 1977). Current discharge measurement is for
the Wacissa Springs group. All discharge rates are measured in ft3/s.

 July 16, 1942 69.4
 December 7, 1960 64.5
 October 12, 1972 280
 April 17, 1973 605
 October 2, 2001 293

 Table 34. Wacissa Springs Group bacteriological analyses.

 Bacteria Results (in #/100 mL)
 Analyte Big Spring Spring No. 2
 Escherichia coli 1 KQ 2Q
 Enterococci 1 KQ 46Q
 Fecal Coliform 1 AQ 4Q
 Total Coliform 1 KQ 270Q