Wellhead modelling was limited to community supply wells.According to an interview with the Sarasota County Department of Health in 2011, these wellheads are mandated to be 0.669 m (2 ft) above grade. Private wellheads were not subject to the same mandate prior
to 1983. Some landowners have modified privately owned wellheads after initial county inspection to ease lawn maintenance by cutting thecasings to be at or below grade. Because of the difficulty of groundtruthing the thousands of known private wells in Sarasota County, they were excluded from this study. Encapsulation or other protection that might influence the exposure of community supply wellheads to storm surge was not considered.