Water flowing from our springs supplies lakes, rivers and streams and provides habitat for fish and wildlife, including unique species invertebrates found nowhere else in the world.

With the population explosion in Lake County there has been an increase in water use and extensive land use changes. Many individuals, organizations, and agencies are concerned with the increased demands upon and threats to our water resources. 

As a result, Lake County and various agencies have initiated programs to monitor and assess our surface and ground water resources, including springs. 

The spring’s portion of this monitoring program includes the regular collection of water samples and flow measurements from area springs.

The larger and less remote springs are sampled on a regular schedule while those springs located in remote or difficult areas to reach are visited as often as resources allow

The data collected is pooled with results from other agency’s to increase our understanding of the hydrogeologic, climatic, and human factors that affect water resources.

It is also true that most of the water flowing in rivers comes from precipitation runoff from the surrounding landscape (watershed)

But, the water in a river doesn’t allcome from surface runoff. Rain falling on the land also seeps into the Earth to form groundwater.

Spring water is often mistaken for being equal or interchangeable with purifiedwater.

“collected at the point where water flows naturally to the earth’s surface or from a borehole that taps into the underground source.”

Springs may be considered curious features because water appears to flow directly out of rocks. Yet springs are less mysterious when one understands where the water came from and how long it has been in the subsurface

Springs that contain significant amounts of minerals are sometimes called ‘mineral springs‘.

The Spring River has a diverse population of fish including trout, walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass, channel catfish, redear sunfish, and tiger muskies

Springsare not limited to the Earth’s surface, though.

They range in size from intermittent seeps, which flow only after much rain, to huge pools flowing hundreds of millions of gallons daily.

Minerals become dissolved in the water as it moves through the underground rocks. 

A spring is the result of an aquifer being filled to the point that the water overflows onto the land surface.

They range in size from intermittent seeps, which flow only after much rain, to huge pools flowing hundreds of millions of gallons daily.