New Ocala Wetland Recharge Park Offering Visitors ‘A Peaceful Feeling’
By Mikayla Carroll
January 7, 2021
Video above: At the Ocala Wetland Recharge Park, the city’s water resources conservation coordinator, Rachel Slocumb, discusses the accommodations for visitors. (Mikayla Carroll/WUFT News)
After more than two years of challenging development, the Ocala Wetland Recharge Park has drawn in about 200 visitors a day since opening in September.
The serene bodies of water they see upon entering the 60-acre park are actually treated wastewater flowing from facilities in Ocala. Three million gallons of such wastewater are sent to the park each day, with plants and microorganisms helping to “recharge” it all back into the Upper Floridian Aquifer – the primary supply of drinking water for most of north central Florida.