Domestic
Wastewater to
Wetlands Program
Orlando
Easterly Wetlands
The
Orlando Easterly Wetlands is an effort by the City of Orlando, Florida to
reuse highly treated reclaimed water from its 40-million-gallon-per-day (mgd) Iron Bridge Regional Water Reclamation Facility for environmental
enhancement. The project began in the mid-1980s when the city, faced with
the need to increase its permitted treatment capacity, was unable to
increase its wasteload allocation into sensitive area waterways due to
concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in the Iron Bridge facility’s
effluent. Nitrogen and phosphorus - products commonly used in fertilizers
- can promote algae blooms that deplete oxygen in a water body and result
in fish kills and other undesirable conditions.
Recognizing that aquatic ecosystems can be used to naturally remove
nitrogen and phosphorus, the city created a large-scale wetland treatment
system on an active cattle pasture that had been a wetland many years ago.
Earthen berms were constructed throughout the site, and 2.1 million
aquatic macrophytes were planted to create 17 cells that further
"polish" the reclaimed water piped in from the Iron Bridge
facility and discharge it with no adverse impact into the environmentally
sensitive St. Johns River system.
After more than a decade of demonstrated performance, the Orlando
Easterly Wetlands reclamation project has proven to the world that
large-scale, created wetlands can be used on a long-term basis - and with
resounding success - for both the advanced treatment of wastewater and
beneficial reuse.
How
It Works
Reclaimed
water from the Iron Bridge Regional Water Reclamation Facility enters the
wetlands by pipeline, is split into thirds at a control structure, and
then routed through three separate flow pathways within the wetland
system. The system includes three vegetative communities. A 410-acre deep
marsh, comprised primarily of cattail and bulrush, accomplishes nutrient
removal. A 380-acre mixed marsh of more than 60 submergent and emergent
herbaceous species provides additional nutrient removal and wildlife
habitat. A 400-acre area that includes hardwood swamp species serves
primarily as wildlife habitat. After passing through the wetlands, water
is conveyed in a ditch along the north property boundary to the St. Johns
River. Control structures allow the water to flow directly through the
outfall creek to the St. Johns River or across natural marshes.
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