The owner of the Wekiva Falls Resort says that all he has done is use a natural spring as the centerpiece for his property. Water managers sued the owner years ago, claiming that water was being wasted. Now neighbors wonder if water coming out of the ground there is hurting them. Mary Mericle has lived very near the Wekiva River for more than 20 years, but living near one of the state's pristine rivers doesn't guarantee an unlimited supply of drinking water, nor does it guarantee good water. Water quality has always been an issue.
Residents use chlorinators, carbon filters, water softeners and even a reverse osmosis system.
But now the problem isn't quality, it is quantity. Mericle says that the flow out of her artesian well has dramatically reduced. Some of that problem can be attributed to the drought, but Mericle wonders if the nearby Wekiva resort and its famed swimming area might be a contributing factor as well. Gene Middlebrooks, the owner of the resort, says that he has been fighting the battle for years. He says that his resort is fed by a natural spring, not something of his own creation.