Ochlockonee Watershed

Ochlockonee River and Bay Watershed

The Ochlockonee River originates in the Georgia clay hills, entering Florida about 15 miles north of Tallahassee. The river flows 162 miles through rolling hills near the headwaters, then on through sandy coastal plains before entering the Gulf of Mexico at Panacea. An 8,850-acre impoundment, Lake Talquin, lies directly west of Tallahassee. River flow fluctuates widely with occasional floods and droughts. The Florida portion of the basin drains ~1,080 square miles, with an additional ~1,336 square miles in Georgia.  Land use in the upper basin is mostly agricultural, and many headwater tributaries are impounded for farm ponds (see Ochlockonee Watershed Land Use Map 2004).

To the east of the upper portion of the Ochlockonee River lie a series of shallow lakes:  lakes Jackson, Lafayette, Miccosukee, and Iamonia. Lake Jackson, which is a SWIM priority waterbody, receives about one-third of Tallahassee’s urban drainage. Lake Jackson is located immediately north of the City of Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida.  The lake has a drainage area of approximately 43 square miles and a surface area of 4,000 acres.

Lake Jackson is long and irregular in width, ranging from one-half to two miles, and has two extensions in the southern part of the lake, Meginniss and Fords arms.  The two deepest depressions in the lake bed contain sinks which currently drain Lake Jackson.  The largest of these, Lime Sink and Porter Hole Sink, are remnants of the process which formed the lake and which continues to operate today on a diminished scale.  Lake level varies from 76 to 96 feet NGVD, with an average depth of 12 feet in the northern half and 8 feet in the southern half.  Lake Jackson was designated as an Aquatic Preserve in 1974 by the Florida Legislature, and was granted Outstanding Florida Water (OFW) status in 1979.  The purpose of the OFW designation is to maintain ambient conditions by not allowing further degradation of water quality.  Also in 1989, Lake Jackson was designated as a nonpoint source (NPS) priority watershed under §319 of the Federal Clean Water Act.

The lower portion of the Ochlockonee River flows mostly through forested coastal lowlands, encompassing the Apalachicola National Forest. The Sopchoppy River, a remote blackwater creek that is an Outstanding Florida Water, and the Ochlockonee River both flow into the western end of the Ochlockonee Bay, a small embayment that feeds into Apalachee Bay.

Additional information on this watershed is available in the Ochlockonee River and Bay SWIM Plan.