ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — One of Orange County’s most unique parks has an important mission beyond providing habitat for Central Florida’s wildlife.
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The 1,650-acre Orlando Wetlands Park might seem like a natural paradise, but it is actually a manmade wetland designed to provide advanced treatment to reclaimed water.
Beneath the boardwalk, bird-watchers spy on Roseate spoonbills on waters sourced from 16 miles away -- an iron bridge regional reclamation facility.
“This facility treats 40 million gallons per day of sewage -- about 18 million gallons (of which make their) way to Orlando Wetlands Park,” said Paul Deuel, a water reclamations manager for the city of Orlando.
Most of the reclaimed water that is processed is pumped through underground piping to Orlando Wetlands Park.
Read: Orlando celebrates completion of new Orlando Wetlands Park boardwalk
While it’s safe now, it still has trace amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous nutrients that could lead to algae blooms in the wetlands, like in lakes and rivers.
“Think about it: We’ve juiced up the whole bottom end of the food chain,” Sees said. “In a wetland system, we actually encourage algal growth as well as the plant growth. Because in a wetland, they’re tying up those nutrients and filtering it and cleaning it from the water.”
It was 1987 when they first turned on the pumps, turning a cow pasture into wetlands. And after transplanting more than 2 million plants, the animals showed up on their own.
Photos: Orlando celebrates completion of new Orlando Wetlands Park boardwalk
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Sees said there are over 240 species of birds, about 1,700 alligators, bobcats, otters, bear and the occasional Florida panther on the property.
All these animals are in the park, which doubles as a massive network that cleanses and filters water.
It takes about 30 days for the waters to flow through the wetlands, discharging up to 35 million gallons into the St. Johns River. The water then meets the cleanliness standards of drinking water.
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City officials can control the amount of water stored in the wetlands at the park, which prevented the area from flooding during Hurricane Ian and Tropical Storm Nicole last year.
Have you ever wanted to visit the park? The park will host the Orlando Wetlands Festival from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. Click here for more information.
See a map of the location below:
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