Missouri is blessed with an abundance of water:  surface and ground.  The State can be divided into Surface Water River Basins (watersheds) and Groundwater Provinces.  The dissolving of the underlying limestone  and dolomite, along with the fracturing of sandstone allow vast quantities of water to move and to be stored underground. 

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The SALT lies in the Osage Fork River Basin and the Salem Plateau Groundwater Province.  Little water flows through the two watersheds into the Osage Fork River Basin and that which does is highly seasonal. All of Missouri water resources originate as precipitation, most in the form of rainfall.  Laclede County receives approximately 39 inches of annual rainfall.  Most of the precipitation is lost back into the atmosphere through evaporation, or is discharged back into the atmosphere through transpiration.  On average the County has nine (9) inches of annual rainfall available for groundwater recharge.

There are two types of groundwater recharge: diffuse and discreet.  Diffuse recharge is the relatively slow infiltration of water from the Earth's surface into the groundwater system.  Discreet recharge is more spectacular.  It typically occurs where groundwater recharge features have developed.  Karst is a term used to denote areas where the topography is mostly formed by the dissolving of soluble rock (limestone and dolomite).  Much of the water entering the ground system returns to the surface within days, but some of it penetrates to aquifers over 1000 feet deep.  The town of Lebanon has wells to over 1000 feet deep yielding up to 225 gallons per minute.  Dye tracings in County streams indicate that groundwater emerging at Bennett, Sweet Blue, and Hahatonka  Springs have their origins in the Dry Auglaize-Goodwin Hollow SALT project area.  The dye tracings traveled from 9 to 18 miles in from 1 to 11 days.

Over time, sink holes, losing streams, springs, and caves form in the dissolving limestone and dolomite. 

Sink Hole:  Sinkholes are topographic depressions in the Earth's surface caused by the subsurface removal of soil and rock.  They act as natural funnels, collecting and channeling underground the runoff from precipitation which allows significant groundwater recharge.

Losing Stream:  Any stream that loses a significant part of its flow into the groundwater system.  In Laclede County  both the Dry Auglaize and Goodwin Hollow  are losing streams.  The Lebanon Waste Water Plant discharges up to 2 million gallons a day into the Dry Auglaize which enters the groundwater system which feeds into two area springs.

Springs:  Hydrologically, both losing streams and sinkholes can be thought of as the upstream ends or entry points of karst drainage systems.  Springs are the groundwater outlets at the downstream end where the water lost underground through sinkholes and losing streams, as well as water provided by diffuse recharge is returned to the surface.    The Sweet Blue Spring on the Niangua River is one of the discharge points of the Dry Auglaize - Goodwin Hollow watersheds. 

Caves:  Connecting recharge areas and discharge points are groundwater conduits, or cave-like openings, that can rapidly transport water through the karst drainage system.  In the case of large springs, the conduits may be many feet in diameter and are essentially water-filled caves.  

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