About Titusville | Calendar | City Council | City Departments | Government | Site Map

The Blue Heron Wetland Treatment System (WTS) was constructed on a 292-acre site located in the southwest quadrant formed by the intersection of State Route 50 and Interstate 95. The WTS was designed to provide additional treatment for and to dispose of effluent from the City’s Blue Heron Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) and from the Osprey WWTF during wet weather conditions. When the WTS went on-line, the City was able to divert the plant effluent flow from the Indian River into the wetland system, which eventually drains toward the St. Johns River. Implementation of the WTS, therefore, brought the City of Titusville into full compliance with the Indian River Lagoon Act, and the anti-degradation rules within State regulations. The WTS also partially satisfied the conditions set forth in the Consent decree that existed between the City and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The WTS was constructed on a section of land that historically formed part of the floodplain wetlands adjacent to the St. Johns River. However, development and agricultural drainage activities over the past 50 years have significantly altered the ecological nature of the site. As an example, the vegetative cover on the WTS site before development probably would have included isolated pockets freshwater marsh plants embedded within a dense stand of cordgrass. Development activities converted much of the cordgrass community into improved pasture, while the remaining cordgrass areas converted to myrtle thickets, cordgrass/black rush wetlands, and salt pans through natural succession processes. The construction of the WTS has succeeded into re-establishing portions of the historic vegetative cover on the WTS site by a combination of techniques, that have included lowering the salinity of the surface water and of the superficial ground water, by planting species that previously could have been found on-site, by encouraging the germination of seeds that existed in the upper layers of the soil, and by the elimination of exotic or nuisance plant species from the site. The potential habitat on the WTS site also was enhanced by not grading the soil surface to uniform elevations throughout each of the cells. The uneven nature of the cell bottom allows different plant communities to develop and be maintained throughout the deep and shallow marsh cells. Presently, the plant community within the WTS includes approximately 85 species. This diversity of plant species within the WTS, along with the continuously increasing density of the plants will encourage a greater number of wildlife species to utilize the WTS as part of their habitat.

The WTS was designed as a flow through, man-made wetland system (as defined by chapter 17-611 F.A.C.) that will rely on rooted macrophytes and phytoplankton to facilitate the removal of nutrients from passing waters. The WTS is divided into a series of seven individual cells (one pond cell, three deep marsh cells, three shallow marsh cells), where each cell is separated from the others by an earthen berm. The WTS design allows each cell (with the exception of Cell 4) to be operated independently of the remaining treatment cells. The earthen berms are designed to spread the influent waters across the wetlands site, to maintain adequate hydroperiods for the maintenance of target vegetation species, to provide for storage of a 100 year, 24 hour storm event, and to maintain an average detention time of approximately 60 days and a minimum detention time of at least 14 days. Removing or adding flashboards to the weir structures in each cell controls water depths and internal flow routing. The wetland system was designed to treat a maximum of 6.75 million gallons per day (MGD) of tertiary effluent, or an average dry weather flow (ADWF) rate of 4.0 MGD. Water flows by gravity through the seven cells to a collection system along the south side of the site, and then is discharged to the Addison Canal, which is a primary tributary to the St. Johns River.