GEOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY OF LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA DURWARD H. BOGGESS MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SPECIAL PUBLICATION NO. 49 Durward H. Boggess STATE OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION David B. Struhs, Secretary DIVISION OF RESOURCE ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT Edwin J. Conklin, Director FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Walter Schmidt, State Geologist and Chief SPECIAL PUBLICATION NO. 49 GEOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY OF LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA DURWARD H. BOGGESS MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM EDITED BY Thomas M. Missimer and Thomas M. Scott Published for the FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Tallahassee 2001 ii LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Tallahassee 2001 Governor Jeb Bush Tallahassee, Florida Dear Governor Bush: The Florida Geological Survey, Division of Resource Assessment and Management, Department of Environmental Protection, is publishing as Special Publication No. 49, Geology and Hydrogeology of Lee County, Florida, Durward H. Boggess Memorial Symposium, edited by Thomas M. Missimer and Thomas M. Scott. The information presented herein is valuable in understanding the geology of the aquifers underlying this growing region. It will be useful to state planners and land managers who must make informed decisions about local aquifer uses and resources. Respectfully, Walter Schmidt, Ph.D. State Geologist and Chief Florida Geological Survey iii Printed for the Florida Geological Survey Tallahassee 2001 ISSN 0085-0640 iv CONTENTS Dedication and Editor’s Preface . .vi Acknowledgements . .vii List of Participants and Contributors . .viii Contributions of Durward H. Boggess to the hydrology and geology of Lee County, Florida by Thomas M. Missimer . .1 GEOLOGY The Surficial Geology of Lee County and the Caloosahatchee Basin, by Thomas M. Scott and Thomas M. Missimer . .17 Late Neogene Geology of Northwestern Lee county, Florida, by Thomas M. Missimer . .21 Sequence Stratigraphy of a Carbonate Ramp and Bounding Silicielasties (late Miocene - Pliocene), Southern Florida, by Kevin J. Cunningham, David Burky, Tokiyuki Sato, John A. Barron, Laura A. Guertin, and Ronald S. Reese . .35 Late Paleogene and Neogene Chronostratigraphy of Lee County, Florida, by Thomas M. Missimer . .67 HYDROGEOLOGY Hydrogeology of Lee County, Florida, by Thomas M. Missimer and W. Kirk Martin . .91 Water Level Maps of the Primary Aquifers in the Lower West Coast of Florida by Terry Bengtsson and Hope Radin . .139 Hydrogeologic Implications of Uranium-rich Phosphate in Northeastern Lee County by J. Michael Weinberg and James B. Cowant . .151 Hydrogeology of the Lower Floridian Aquifer "Boulder Zone" of Southwest Florida by Robert G. Maliva, Charles W. Walker, and Edward X. Callahan . .167 HYDROLOGY AND WATER QUALITY Caloosahatchee Basin integrated surface water - groundwater model by Clyde Dabbs, Torten Jacobsen, Douglas Moulton, and Akin Owosina . .183 Surface - Water Management in Lee County, by Archie T. Grant and Andrew D. Tilton . .197 Seagrass meadow hourly dissolved oxygen recordings, central Estero Bay, Lee County by Hugh J. Mitchell-Tapping, Thomas J. Lee, Cathy R. Williams, and Thomas Winter . .205 The Lee County Abandoned Well Program, by Jack McCoy . .227 v DEDICATION AND EDITOR'S PREFACE A special symposium on the geology and hydrology of Lee County, Florida was held in Fort Myers on November 18 and 19, 1999. This symposium was held as part of the 9th Southwest Florida Water Resources Conference. The conference was held in honor of Durward H. Boggess, who made significant contributions to the understanding of the geology and hydrology of Lee County. Durward H. Boggess was a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Fort Myers from 1966 to 1979. During this time period, Lee County was one of the most rapidly growing regions in the United States. Little was known about the geology and the aquifer system beneath the county, as evidenced by the small number of publications on this region by the Florida Geological Survey. Durward H. Boggess developed a geologic and hydrologic database that allowed the development of future water supplies to occur with a sound scientific basis. Most of the papers published in this volume were presented at the conference and a few others were added to make the volume as complete as possible in terms of recent knowledge on the geology and hydrology of Lee County. The volume is organized with a discussion of the contributions of Durward Boggess, followed by a series of papers on the geology of the county. Based on the geologic framework, a series of papers follows on the hydrogeology of the county. Finally, some papers on the surface-water hydrology and water quality of the county complete the volume. Lee County occurs in the geographic middle of the southern part of the Florida Platform. The geology of this region is rather unique, because there is a succession of carbonate sediments followed by a complex mix of carbonate and siliciclastic sediments (beginning in the Oligocene). The geographic location of the county and the mixing of the sediments caused the aquifer system beneath the county to be quite complex with numerous different aquifers present. Over 12 aquifers or major water-bearing zones occur beneath any given area of the county. It is critical to understand the geology and hydrology of this area, because many of the aquifer are or will be used for water supply. Also, the deep aquifer system is used for the disposal of liquid wastes, such as oil field brines, concentrates from desalination plants, and treated domestic wastewater. It is extremely important that recent information on the geology and hydrology of this as well as other regions of Florida be made available to environmental managers and the general pub- lic in a timely manner. Thomas M. Missimer Thomas M. Scott Fort Myers Tallahassee vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors wish to acknowledge a number of individuals whose efforts made this sym- posium and the resulting special publication possible. Perhaps the most difficult task, aside from finding the time to prepare a paper, is the meeting planning and organization. This task fell on the conference host committee, whose efforts are greatly appreciated: Ron Edenfield (Chair), Susan Brookman, John Capece, Clyde Dabbs, Win Everham, Samy Faried, Lynne Felknor, Jennifer Flaitz, Ron Hamel, Kurt Harclerode, Steve Kempton, Bonnie Kranzer, Jeff Krieger, Tom Missimer, John Musser, Dan VanNorman, and Sean Weeks. The editors extend a special thanks to Mrs. Durward Boggess for providing the photo of her husband used inside the front cover of the publication. And we thank Frank Rupert for com- piling the different text and graphics formats into QuarkXPress for publication. vii LIST OF PARTICIPANTS AND CONTRIBUTORS John Barron, U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025 Terry Bengtsson, SFWMD, 2301 McGregor Blvd, Fort Myers, FL 33901 David Bukrey, U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025 Edward Callahan, Florida Geophysical Logging, Inc., 15465 Pine Ridge Rd., Fort Myers, FL 33908 James Cowart, Department of Geological Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306 Kevin Cunningham, U.S. Geological Survey, 9100 NW 36th Street, Suite 107, Miami, FL 33178 Clyde Dabbs, SFWMD, 2301 McGregor Blvd, Fort Myers, FL 33901 Archie Grant, Johnson Engineering, Inc.P.O. Box 1550, Fort Myers. FL 33902 Laura Guertin, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 Torsten Jacobsen, DHI Inc., Eight Neshaminy Interplex, Suite 219, Trevose, PA 19053 Thomas Lee, Ostego Bay Foundation Inc./Estero Bay Marine Laboratory Inc., P.O. Box 0875, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931 Robert Maliva, CDM/Missimer International, Inc., 8140 College Parkway, Suite 202, Fort Myers, FL 33919 Joseph Mallon, Ostego Bay Foundation Inc./Estero Bay Marine Laboratory Inc., P.O. Box 0875, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931 Kirk Martin, CDM/Missimer International, Inc., 8140 College Parkway, Suite 202, Fort Myers, FL 33919 Jack McCoy, Lee County Natural Resources Division, P.O. Box 398, Fort Myers, FL 33902 Thomas Missimer, CDM/Missimer International, Inc., 8140 College Parkway, Suite 202, Fort Myers, FL 33919 Hugh Mitchell-Tapping, Ostego Bay Foundation Inc./Estero Bay Marine Laboratory Inc., P.O. Box 0875,Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931 Douglas Moulton, C.D.M., 2301 Maitland Center Parkway, Suite 301, Maitland, FL 32751 Akin Owosina, SFWMD, 2301 McGregor Blvd, Fort Myers, FL 33901 Hope Radin, SFWMD, 3301 Gun Club Rd., West Palm Beach, FL Ronald Reese, U.S. Geological Survey, 9100 NW 36th Street, Suite 107, Miami, FL 33178 Thomas Scott, Florida Geological Survey, 903 West Tennessee St., Tallahassee, FL 32304` Tokiyuki Sato, Institute of Applied Earth Sciences Mining College, Akita University, Tegata- Gakuencho 1-1, Akita, 010, Japan Andrew Tilton, Johnson Engineering, Inc.P.O. Box 1550, Fort Myers. FL 33902 Leslie Wadderburn, Consulting Hydrogelogist Charles Walker, CDM/Missimer International, Inc., 8140 College Parkway, Suite 202, Fort Myers, FL 33919 Micheal Weinberg, Water Resource Solutions, 428 Pine Island Rd. SW, Cape Coral, FL 33991 Cathy Williams, Ostego Bay Foundation Inc./Estero Bay Marine Laboratory Inc., P.O. Box 0875, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931 Thomas Winter, Ostego Bay Foundation Inc./Estero Bay Marine Laboratory Inc., P.O. Box 0875, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931 viii ix FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CONTRIBUTIONS OF DURWARD H. BOGGESS TO THE HYDROLOGY AND GEOLOGY OF LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA Thomas M. Missimer, CDM/Missimer International, Inc., 8140 College Parkway, Suite 202, Fort Myers, Florida 33919 ABSTRACT Sparse investigation of the hydrology and geology of Lee County, Florida was conducted before Durward Boggess established the U.S. Geological Survey office in Fort Myers during 1966. Past work included a general description of the geology along the banks of the Caloosahatchee River (Heilprin, Dall, DuBar) and some paleontological studies of barrow pit spoils piles and some surface-water studies in a few streams. Durward Boggess quickly grasped the water-supply problems of Lee County and recognized the need for both surface-water and groundwater data. The completion of the Okeechobee Waterway (construction of S-79) occurred only a short time before Mr.