Rose Sink

Over 25 volunteers spent their Saturday helping to clean up Rose Sink in December 2007. The Rose Creek Watershed covers over 27 square miles in central Columbia County and this area is experiencing increasing residential development. As more development occurs the potential for water quality problems increase.

Jared Hires and Walter Pickel coming up from a clean up dive in Rose Creek sink. (Kathleen Byars)

The Ichetucknee Springs Basin Working Group has been striving to reduce human impacts from agriculture, municipal wastewater, septic tanks and fertilizer from the waters of the Ichetucknee Springs since 1995. The working group is composed of local, state and federal agencies, as well as landowners, businesses and citizens.

Dive Rite has been involved in exploring and mapping Rose Sink for a number of years and has been an active participant of the Ichetucknee Springs Basin Working Group. Diving labor has been provided when needed in order to ensure water sampling and condition assessments are made regularly. In 1995 and 1997 a harmless dye tracer was released which demonstrated that the waters flowing into Rose Sink return to the surface in the springs of Ichetucknee Springs State Park – 8 miles away.

Right: The rubbish collected underwater is brought to the bank of Rose Creek (Kathleen Byars)

This significant connection illustrated that any contaminants in storm water and road drainage that flow into Rose Sink can affect a much larger area. A clean up of the sink and surrounding area ensured that the damage to the water quality in the Florida aquifer is minimized. Divers removed a large quantity of rubbish from the cave entrance and beyond, including car and truck tires, 55-gallon drums as well as wire and assorted bottles and beer cans. The rubbish was removed by a 12 man dive team over a series of dives. Some divers reported removing chunks of tire as far back as 2000 ft into the cave.

Click on the SLIDESHOW tab above to see more images from the Rose Creek clean up and don't miss the VIDEO that shows divers removing a truck tire from inside the cave.