OK you can’t paddle there. But things are slow on the board during the winter and we get off on many side “trails”.
Orlando has done many things wrong considering water quality. But they have done some things right. Lets look at one of those. Sewage goes through the treatment plant and comes out mostly clean. It is still rich in phospherous and nitrogen. Things that are fertilizers. When entered into the water it causes plants to grow including algae. The algaes and the new toxic algaes (bacteria like plants) are causing problems. So Orlando when out and bought a cattle ranch and converted it into wetlands. It is down the road in Christmas Florida off highway 50 near Titusville. It takes the water about 40 days to make it through the park, lake to lake and loose the bad stuff. After a while they drain the pond and demuck them making “new dirt” for other county projects. Then they replant that cell, aka pond. Here are some pictures and a link … (good tour, and free) https://www.orlando.gov/Parks-the-Environment/Directory/Wetlands-Park Lots of gators, estimate is 1700, and birds make this home. Some of your northern snowbirds with feathers winter over here.
We have a Superfund site s couple of miles away. It was created by a hundred years of textile chemicals being dumped in the Reedy River.
It is now a beautiful park with a large , heavily weeded lake.
Beaver have built dams around it and water fowl nest and rest there. There are several hiking trails and observation platforms.
Just don’t play in the water or the dirt.
My hats off to the project, but I’m curious how the wastewater gets to the park. Does Orlando really pump it that far out? From downtown Orlando, that park is almost 30 miles away, well outside of what I’d consider even Greater Orlando. I’m sure the birding there is great, and you’re only about 30 miles from Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I grew up just south of Merritt Island and spent a lot of time paddling parts of the Indian River.
There is a big treatment plant on the perimeter. Pipes carry the treated water to the ponds. Likely does not mean ALL of Orlando water. It is Orange County.
