MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A lot of the South is facing drought. In parts of north Florida, the drought is considered exceptional. That's the worst category on the federal scale. Water is disappearing from some rivers, some lakes, and that is creating a unique challenge for some of the state's most famous inhabitants. Regan McCarthy of member station WFSU reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)
MICHAEL HILL: See, there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
REGAN MCCARTHY, BYLINE: Michael Hill is counting alligators.
HILL: I think this one here has part of his tail missing.
MCCARTHY: Really?
HILL: I think. Unless it's just the way he's curled it.
MCCARTHY: The gators are lined up side by side, almost like lounge chairs at a pool. As we move closer, several slide into what looks like a small pond.
HILL: This is the last of the water.
MCCARTHY: We're standing on the now mostly dried and cracked floor of Sneads Smokehouse Lake, not far from Monticello, a small north Florida town. The lake is part of the headwaters for the Aucilla River, which, at least in this area, is also dry.
HILL: So that's why there's so many alligators, is all this water has gone this direction. We could probably walk all the way along the riverbank here without getting our feet wet.
MCCARTHY: I count at least 41 alligators. Hill says there are even more on the other side of a line of trees. Hill knows this area well. He's a retired biologist who worked to restore this lake through his job with the state. He says besides the lack of rain, one reason for low water levels is that some has seeped into the Floridan aquifer below. That aquifer is one of the most productive in the world. It sits under Florida as well as parts of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and even some of Mississippi. It's where most of Florida gets its drinking water.
LORRI KELLY: I'm on a well. I'm scared on the well. I know where the aquifer - I look at my pond, how low it is.
MCCARTHY: Lorri Kelly (ph) sells meat and produce at the Tallahassee farmers market. She has a farm in Havana, Florida.
KELLY: You look at all the ponds in our area, we're very, very low. It all goes into play. I do not want to have to redo a new well.
MCCARTHY: Experts say they understand why Kelly's concerned about her well. It all depends on how deep it is. Disappearing water can be linked to lower levels in the aquifer, but that's typically just the surface level. Ming Ye is a professor studying hydrology at Florida State University. He says there's a deeper part of the aquifer where most municipal wells get their water. It works kind of like a sponge.
MING YE: And if you squeeze it, you're going to have some water coming out. But eventually, if there's no supply of water or recharge to the aquifer, the water will be gone.
MCCARTHY: But Ye says that's not a concern yet.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS CRUNCHING)
MCCARTHY: Back at the lake, Hill is still counting alligators.
HILL: You can count another 20, so 61.
MCCARTHY: Yeah.
Hill says drought is normal, and eventually these empty lakes and rivers will fill back up.
HILL: Quarter-inch, half-inch rains, that's nothing. We need some four-inch rains and six-inch rains (laughter).
MCCARTHY: And that could be coming. The Atlantic hurricane season starts in June. And while initial forecasts are calling for slightly below normal activity, meteorologists say a tropical storm could do a lot to push the area's rainfall into more normal levels.
For NPR News, I'm Regan McCarthy in Tallahassee.
(SOUNDBITE OF KEHLANI SONG, "BETTER NOT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.