The Ocala Wetland Recharge Park was set up six years ago to help refill Florida’s aquifer system and to encourage visitors to observe wildlife. It has achieved both, but because of porous, sinking earth, water is flowing back to nearby Silver Springs faster than those who built it thought it would.
The park, located at 2105 NW 21st St., has a recurring issue of sinking ground, also known as subsidences, since the park’s construction in 2018. As a result, millions of gallons of reclaimed and stormwater from Ocala’s Water Reclamation Facilities are spilling faster than expected into the Floridan aquifer.
Ocala city spokesperson Ashley Dobbs said the Ocala Water Resources Department reported 22 subsidences since construction began. There are three different wetland cells in the park where the subsidences have occurred. The most recent one took place Jan. 29 in Wetland Cell 1.
TheU.S. Geological Survey said a land subsidence occurs when groundwater has been removed from an area that helps support the land on top of it. That land then falls in on itself creating a subsidence. A sinkhole is one example of a subsidence.
“A total of 33,112,629 gallons of reuse water entered the UFA (Upper Floridan aquifer) through these subsidences,” Dobbs wrote in an email.
There are also no harmful side effects of subsidences. The water is simply entering the aquifer faster than the park’s designers intended. The reason why these subsidences continue to occur is because of Florida’s karst topography, she said.
“Karst is a type of landscape where the dissolving of the bedrock has created sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, springs, and other characteristic features,” according to theU.S. National Park Service.
To fix the subsidences, Dobbs said that there is no extra financial burden taken on by the state or local taxpayers as there is still no additional cost outside of the park’s annual operating budget.
“We typically repair them in-house, so we use staff and staff resources to fill them,” Dobbs said.
The good news for park visitors is that when a subsidence occurs, people can still visit to see the wildlife that call the park home.
John Roach, 67, has lived in Marion County for over 50 years and does photography in his free time for almost just as long. He enjoys going to the park to take pictures of the wildlife it has to offer, which not all parks have.
“I was very excited to see this come here. Particularly because it isn’t a recreation with basketball courts and tennis courts,” Roach said. “I’ve had the opportunity to photograph three different breeds of hawks.”
He listed multiple different animals that can be seen at the park including three different species of woodpeckers, snakes, alligators, turtles, fox squirrels and even a pair of horned owls.
“I’ve seen a gentleman who videotaped a very large alligator snapping turtle, it must have weighed 150 pounds,” he said.
Roach said he hopes the holes are restored soon and that he’s grateful the city took the time to build the park.
“I applaud the city for doing this,” he said, “I really do.”