BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A project that could pump up to 40 million gallons of wastewater a day from Jacksonville to North Central Florida has Union County residents worried that their area could be the destination for Duval County sewage.
Union County Commissioner Donna Jackson told her colleagues during the February 2 county commission meeting that the idea was “blowing up on Facebook.”
However, when she asked legislators and county commissioners from a surrounding county about the project, they did not know about it.
During its November 17, 2025, meeting, the JEA (also known as Jacksonville Electric Authority) board tentatively approved funding 40% of the $1 billion Water First North Florida project.
During that meeting, Rob Zammataro, JEA’s Chief Water Systems Officer, told board members that the project will draw treated wastewater from JEA’s Buckman and Southwest water reclamation facilities, route it through a network of newly constructed wetlands, and send it west to recharge sites where geology naturally allows groundwater infiltration.
He added that the project is a direct response to pending state regulations under Senate Bill 64 and new minimum flow and levels standards being set for the Ichetucknee and lower Santa Fe rivers by the Suwannee River Water Management District. Those standards, which will go before the Florida legislature in the 2026 session, are expected to restrict how much groundwater utilities in the Jacksonville area can withdraw.
Senate Bill 64, passed and signed by the governor in 2021, requires water utilities to minimize their surface discharges of wastewater and to develop alternatives, like converting wastewater into potable water, also known as toilet-to-tap.
Zammataro told JEA board members that under the plan, highly treated reclaimed water from JEA’s facilities will first pass through 1,500 to 2,000 acres of constructed wetlands. One candidate site for the wetlands is the Peterson Tract near Cecil Field in Jacksonville, which Zammataro noted would also create a local environmental asset.
After natural filtration, the water would be transported further west to recharge sites in the Suwannee River Water Management District, where an unconfined aquifer allows direct infiltration into the ground. The chief water systems officer noted that Jacksonville, by contrast, sits atop a thick clay layer that protects its aquifer but prevents local recharge — making the cross-district partnership essential.
Jackson told the audience at a county commission meeting in Providence that Union County only has one such recharge site, and that she has been told a more likely destination for the treated wastewater would be Baker County.
However, a map published by the Water First North Florida website shows over one-half of Union County for a potential recharge site.
Zammataro told the JEA board that a recharge site would be determined in a future feasibility study.
He added that the success of Gainesville’s Sweetwater Wetlands Park and the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project near Keystone Heights has proven the viability of recharging aquifers with treated water.
Jackson said a representative from the Suwannee River Water Management District would explain the project to commissioners during their February 17 meeting.
