Robert Deyle chairs the Wakulla Springs Alliance Board of Directors. He says one reason for Wakulla Springs’ usually murky tea-colored water is tannins.

“Which are organic substances that leech out of leaves in the national forest north of Wakulla Springs.”

Deyle says tannins from leaves seep into streams.

Those streams flow into sinkholes.

And the water travels down into the aquifer and comes out at Wakulla Springs.

But if it doesn’t rain, tannins from leaves don’t get dissolved into the streams. Data shows parts of the Big Bend have been abnormally dry.