Septic & well services in Duval County

Working in Duval County

The governments of Duval County and the City of Jacksonville were consolidated in 1968. The City calls Jacksonville the largest city in area in the continental United States. It puts the population at approximately 1,007,189 residents. That figure is the City’s own. Its page does not date it.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 place-by-county file lists five places in Duval County. They are Jacksonville city, Atlantic Beach city, Baldwin town, Jacksonville Beach city and Neptune Beach city. The file types all five as incorporated places. Those five rows are every Duval County row in it. The file lists Census places. It is not a list of every community in the county.

The Florida Water Management Inventory maps how each county handles wastewater. FDOH says the mapping for Duval County was finished in June 2022. The county panel counts built parcels, not homes, and its own note says the counts include parcels with unknown built status. The panel lists 14,356 parcels (4.3%) as known to be on septic. It lists another 61,945 (18.5%) as likely on septic. Known and likely are separate classes. The panel keeps them apart. On the sewer side it lists 212,156 parcels (63.3%) as known. It lists 27,585 (8.2%) as likely. Another 272 parcels (0.1%) have conflicting data. Another 18,769 (5.6%) have no data. The percentages leave out parcels where wastewater does not apply. FDOH says the map draws on sources of varied accuracy and scale.

It is easy to assume a well permit here comes from the St. Johns River Water Management District. In Duval, that is not where the form goes. The City of Jacksonville permits wells. The work sits in its Environmental Quality Division, in the Groundwater Resource Section. The City names two authorities. One is Chapter 366 of the City Ordinance Code. The other is Environmental Protection Board Rule 8. Under those, a permit is required for any well under six inches in diameter that the District does not already permit. The permit comes first. It is required before such a well is built, repaired, modified or abandoned. The City says this authority applies to all areas within Duval County. The City also says it has adopted F.A.C. Chapters 62-532 and 40C-3. Those are its well construction and abandonment standards. A City well permit is valid for one year. A State of Florida Well Completion Report is then due. It goes to the Groundwater Resource Section within 30 days of completing permitted well work.

The District’s own page shows the other half of that split. It lists 16 well permitting delegation agreements with local health departments. Duval is not among them. The District lists one agreement with a local or county government. That one is with the city of Jacksonville. Some wells stay with the District either way. It still permits every well with an outside diameter of six inches or greater at land surface. It also permits wells in delineated areas in counties that do not regulate them. Florida law defines a delineated area. It is an area with known groundwater contamination, or a vulnerable area. The District names Duval among the counties that do not regulate the construction of delineated wells.

Septic permits come from a different office. In Duval they come from the Florida Department of Health in Duval County. The program is Environmental Public Health, onsite sewage disposal. DEP became responsible for the state statutes and regulations for onsite sewage systems on July 1, 2021. Florida’s Clean Waterways Act of 2020 kept the permitting local. Under it, county health department offices continue to do the permitting and inspection for septic tanks. DOH-Duval says so on its own onsite sewage page. DEP says the same in its county table. That table places Duval in the block where permits are issued by the Environmental Public Health Program of the Florida Department of Health’s local county health department. DEP has been taking counties over in phases. It dates Phase 1 to January 2, 2025. That phase runs from Escambia County to Jefferson County. It dates Marion County to July 1, 2025. For the counties left, DEP gives no date. It says only that timing is to be determined, depending on legislative approval. Duval is in that group.

Two parts of Duval septic paperwork are local rather than statewide: fees, and operating permits. On fees, DOH-Duval points to City of Jacksonville County Ordinance 2015-376. That ordinance covers changes in the fees the department charges. The page lists septic tank operators among the affected categories. On operating permits, DOH-Duval publishes the state rule under a heading that limits it. The heading reads: OSTDS Operating Permits (only apply to counties that use operating permits). Under that rule, operating permits are required for four kinds of system. They are aerobic treatment units, performance based treatment systems, commercial septic systems, and industrial or manufacturing zoned septic systems. The page does not say whether Duval is one of the counties that uses operating permits.

Duval County is covered by the Lower St. Johns River Main Stem Basin Management Action Plan. DEP’s current plan is dated June 2025. The plan area is not the county line. It follows the St. Johns River between the mouth of the Ocklawaha River and the Atlantic Ocean. That is a 2,750-square-mile drainage area. The plan names responsible entities. City of Jacksonville/Duval County is one. So are the City of Atlantic Beach, the City of Jacksonville Beach, the City of Neptune Beach and JEA.

Three rules inside a BMAP area matter to a septic owner. New onsite systems are limited there. Since July 1, 2023, section 403.067, F.S., prohibits a new onsite system where connection to a publicly owned or investor-owned sewerage system is available. Where it is not available, a lot of one acre or less must have an enhanced nutrient-reducing system, or another that achieves at least 65 percent nitrogen reduction. Lots without central sewer face a different requirement. Within all BMAP areas, if central sewer is unavailable, the owner must install a DEP-approved enhanced nutrient-reducing system. That system must achieve at least 65% nitrogen reduction. Another wastewater system that achieves at least 65% reduction also meets the rule. The connection rules work on notice, and both clocks start at one. An existing system’s owner must connect to sewer within 365 days of written notice from the utility that connection is available. An existing system needing repair or modification must connect to an available sewer line within 90 days of notification by DEP. Neither clock is a standing deadline. Both belong to the BMAP area, not to the county.

The same plan logs local projects in its appendix. The City of Jacksonville and JEA run neighborhood septic tank phase-out projects. The plan lists them as management actions. Biltmore was completed in 2022. Beverly Hills West was completed in 2023. The June 2025 plan lists Beverly Hills East and Christobel as underway. These are named neighborhood projects. The plan also counts homeowners who connected to regional sewer outside city-planned projects. The June 2025 plan puts that count at 247.

The City funds one septic grant, and it is not a homeowner program. Jacksonville City Council ordinance ORD 2018-196 pays for it. The grants go to owners of commercial properties with failing septic tanks. They are limited to the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund target area. The City describes that area as north of I-10 and west of U.S. 17/Main Street. It also includes the downtown area, Springfield and Panama Park. The money covers repairing or removing the failing system. It also covers connecting to JEA’s sewer system. The City’s criteria set a bar. The property must have no pending zoning or building code violations, no pending liens, no unpaid taxes and no environmental contamination.

The City names three aquifer systems here. They are the Surficial Aquifer System, or shallow aquifer; the Hawthorn Group, the intermediate aquifer system; and the Floridan Aquifer System. The Floridan is the city’s primary potable water supply. Protecting it is a top priority for the Groundwater Resource Section.

The City Ordinance Code adds rules for Floridan wells inside wellhead protection areas. Title X, Chapter 366.401-409 is the citation. Those wells must be registered with the city. Each one needs a concrete pad around the well casing. The pad is five feet square and at least three inches thick. Each well also needs an approved backflow prevention device. It needs a sanitary seal on the wellhead as well. These rules are written for wellhead protection areas. They are not written for every Floridan well in the county.

USGS studied the shallow-aquifer system in Duval County in 1978. Water-Resources Investigations Report 78-92 is the write-up. It describes the system as chiefly sand, clay, sandy clay and limestone. It puts the thickness at about 300 to 600 feet. The system lies over the Floridan. The report calls the upper 150 feet the most dependable and economical source of supplemental supply. Those are the water-table and shallow-rock zones. The principal shallow water-bearing zone is a limestone bed. It sits 40 to 100 feet below land surface. Aquifer tests at 13 sites showed yields that vary from place to place. The limestone of the shallow-rock zone will yield as much as 200 gallons per minute to wells. At most of the sites tested, the maximum was between 30 and 100 gallons per minute. The water-table zone generally yields 10 gallons per minute or less. Those are 1978 results from 13 test sites. They are not a measurement of any one property.

A later USGS study looked at the Lower Floridan aquifer in Duval County. It ran for three years, from 1993 to 1996. It was published in 1997. The study ties two changes to increased withdrawals. Heads in the aquifer system have declined. Chloride concentrations have increased in water from many wells in Duval County. Most of the observed increases are in the eastern part of the county. USGS added one more line. It wrote that a pattern in the locations of wells yielding water with chloride increases is not discernible. So the study points at no map and no neighborhood. Its readings are from 1993 to 1996.

Gator works across Duval County. On the septic side that means tank pumping, inspections and installation. It also means drain field repair and replacement, and septic pump repair. On the well side we handle pump repair and replacement. We also handle pressure and bladder tanks, well water testing, and well inspections for a home sale. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 6:00pm. Gator holds FDEP Business Authorization SA0222129 and licence CUC1225779.

Towns and communities in Duval County

We work across the county. The places with a page of their own are linked; the rest are served the same way.

Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, Baldwin, Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach.