Over 90% of Florida’a drinking water comes from groundwater.
Groundwater is also our main water source for farming and industry.

Florida is blessed with one of the most productive aquifers on the planet: the Floridan aquifer. Scientific data about aquifers can be expensive to collect, so there isn’t always enough information available to soundly manage our water. More data can help researchers and government agencies better steward Florida’s groundwater resources, and can be used to alert citizens of water issues in their area.

AquiferWatch is dedicated to educating Floridians about our and encouraging groundwater monitoring through citizen science . We facilitate hands-on participation in the management of Florida’s water through well testing programs, citizen scientist training, and science outreach.

To educate Floridians on the fundamental concepts of groundwater hydrology and encourage the monitoring of Florida’s groundwater resources by volunteers. Our goal is to involve citizens and assist them in becoming actively involved in the protection and management of Florida’s groundwater and drinking water resources.

AquiferWatch is dedicated to informing the citizens of Florida about a variety of groundwater related issues. In particular, we are interested in informing citizens about groundwater hydrology, and the inter-relationship of groundwater and surface water. Over time AquiferWatch will supply readers with interesting educational material in a variety of formats. These will include newsletter articles, brochures, and videos.

AquiferWatch is interested in working with any individual interested in the long-term preservation of groundwater. Many of our volunteers actually participate in the monitoring of groundwater. These people own or have access to wells (or springs), and are willing to participate in a long-term monitoring effort. They are what make AquiferWatch work.

Volunteers are required to complete a training session on monitoring their well or spring. It takes about one hour. The training session includes learning about aquifers and springs, plus techniques for collecting water level, and possibly other data. Once a well and a volunteer are certified by AquiferWatch, the volunteer is asked to periodically monitor the well or spring for a minimum of two years. The sampling equipment is supplied by AquiferWatch and is refurbished as needed. After obtaining water levels, or other data, volunteers are then asked to record and send their data to LAKEWATCH for computer storage. This can be done by sending the data by mail, and in the future, on the internet.

Governmental agencies within Florida simply do not have the financial resources to appropriately monitor our groundwater resources. In order to assist and to keep your tax dollars to a minimum, volunteers are needed. AquiferWatch is dedicated to alleviating this problem and encourages the use of volunteers in the monitoring of our groundwater resources. In this sense, a volunteer is an unpaid person who is willing to assist in monitoring wells or springs. All AquiferWatch staff are volunteers.

Volunteering comes in a variety of ways. First, each of our staff is a volunteer. The second type of volunteer is our most common. This is someone who chooses to simply receive the AquiferWatch newsletter and learn about various groundwater topics. What if you do not own a well but would like to become an actively involved in groundwater monitoring? The third type of volunteering includes people who own wells do not have the time to monitor their well. They are often receptive to having trained AquiferWatch representatives monitor their well for them. Our fourth type of volunteer is someone who is willing to periodically monitor several wells per sampling event. If you are willing to participate in this manner, let AquiferWatch know. We will train you and supply you with the proper equipment. The commitment is about one half day per month. Our fifth type of volunteer is a regional coordinator. This is usually a person who has professional experience in the monitoring of groundwater. They assist AquiferWatch by training other volunteers and coordinating the efforts of others over a small region of the state.

Dr. Copeland is a registered Professional Geologist with the State of Florida (P.G. 000126) with decades of experience. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Florida in Geology (1972), a M.S. from the University of Florida, Geology (1974), and a Ph.D. from Florida State University in Geology (1998), with a minor in statistics. He worked for the Suwannee River Water Management District for nine years where he established and maintained several groundwater quality monitoring networks. He then worked for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for over 25 years. For 16 of those years, he was the administrator of Florida’s statewide groundwater quality program. During this time, he was instrumental is redesigning the Department’s surface-water and groundwater quality monitoring networks into one integrated monitoring program, which are still in operation today. He worked several years for the Florida Geological Survey as a hydrogeologist and was the Assistant Stage Geologist in charge of their Hydrogeology Program.

After retiring from the State of Florida in 2010, he founded AquiferWatch Inc. Since 2011, he has consulted for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. He assists the Department in evaluating changes in the quality and quantity of Florida’s groundwater resources.

He served as a Chairman of the Florida Water Resource Monitoring Council’s Salinity Monitoring Network, and is a contributing author to the framework document, for the United States National Ground Water Monitoring Network. Between 2004 and 2014, he was an Adjunct Professor at Tallahassee Community College where he taught Statistics and Earth Sciences. He has authored numerous technical articles. Topics include karst hydrogeology, water quality and quantity monitoring, interpretation of groundwater quality and its relationship to land use and geomorphology, and interpretations of trends in groundwater quality and quantity.

Mr. Maddox is a licensed Professional Geologist with over 34 years of experience working with Florida-specific groundwater issues with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia and has done graduate work in geology at Florida State University. He has hands-on experience in groundwater-quality monitoring; statewide, regional and site-specific water quality assessments, hydrostratigraphy, groundwater/surface-water interactions, and experimental onsite sewage treatment and disposal system installation and monitoring. He has extensive knowledge of Florida springs issues. He has conducted extensive field work supervising the installation and sampling of monitoring wells, piezometers and soil moisture lysimeters, and has performed biological assessments, discharge monitoring and water quality sampling in lakes, rivers and springs.

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