Polk County, FL Water Table Trend
Polk County, FL: what the water table is actually doing
Over 67 years of USGS readings, the well tracking Polk County's aquifer is holding roughly steady: 0.3 ft per decade.
One well stands in for Polk County's whole aquifer here, the honest simplification every page on this site carries.
What the well actually measured
This well is artesian, water currently stands 17.1 ft above land surface (flowing/artesian), not drawn up from a depth. Readings span 1958-02-27 to 2025-02-11, 436 measurements from USGS well USGS-274846081262001 (Lake Weohyakapka Well Near Frostproof, Fl), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
Where Polk County ranks
Of the 1,449 US counties with a usable trend, Polk County ranks 457th from fastest-rising to fastest-declining, 1 is the fastest-rising water table measured, 1449 the fastest-declining. About 852,878 people live in Polk County, Florida. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Polk County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
A dropping table says nothing about water quality
Whether Polk County's water table is rising or falling is independent of what's actually in the water. Depletion can concentrate naturally-occurring minerals, so it's worth checking directly with a water test rather than assuming a depth trend says anything about quality.