Septic & well services in Nassau County

Working in Nassau County

The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 place-by-county file lists three incorporated places here. They are Fernandina Beach city, Callahan town and Hilliard town. The same file lists two census-designated places, Yulee and Nassau Village-Ratliff. That is the full list of Census places. It is not a list of every community in the county.

Many people assume a well permit here comes from the St. Johns River Water Management District itself. Nassau does sit inside the District. But the application does not go there. The District holds 16 water well permitting delegation agreements with local health departments. It holds one more with the City of Jacksonville. Those agreements cover wells located in the District and not permitted by the District. Nassau is named on that delegated list. So the paperwork goes to the county health department. It does not go to the District’s Palatka headquarters. Some wells stay with the District either way. It still permits wells with an outside diameter of six inches or greater at land surface.

Septic permits come from that same county health department. DEP has a role as well. Since July 1, 2021, it has been responsible for the state statutes and rules for onsite sewage systems. Under Florida’s Clean Waterways Act of 2020, county health department offices still do the permitting and inspection for septic tanks. DEP has begun to take some counties over. It says it permits onsite systems in Northwest Florida and Marion County. It dates Phase 1, Escambia County through Jefferson County, to January 2, 2025. It dates Marion County to July 1, 2025. The rest are to be determined, depending on legislative approval. The Florida Department of Health in Nassau County puts that group at 16 counties. Outside those 16, it says, your local county health department still handles septic permitting and inspections. Nassau is in DEP’s second county table. That table names the issuer. Permits there are issued by the Environmental Public Health Program of the Florida Department of Health’s local county health department.

A 1984 USGS study covers eastern Nassau County, Florida and southeastern Camden County, Georgia. In that study area, the primary sources of water are the surficial and Floridan aquifers. The surficial aquifer is thin permeable zones of sand, shell and limestone. It provides limited water supplies, 10 to 50 gallons per minute. Its water is generally of acceptable quality for most uses, except near the coast. The Floridan sits far deeper. Its upper zone is about 530 to 1,000 feet below land surface. Its middle zone is about 1,200 to 1,700 feet. A lower zone, about 2,000 to 2,100 feet down, holds very saline water. These are 1984 figures for that study area. They are not a measurement of any one property.

The same 1984 study also measured chlorides. In the upper zone of the Floridan, chloride concentrations generally range from 20 to 40 milligrams per liter. In Fernandina Beach, water from a few wells tapping that zone was relatively high, at 190 milligrams per liter. USGS hedged the reason. It said the cause was probably upward migration of saline water from deeper zones. That water moved through uncased or improperly-plugged well bores. And, still on that same probably, not lateral intrusion. That is what the report found in a few wells, in one place, in 1984. It is not a reading from your tap.

Gator’s septic work in Nassau County covers tank pumping, inspections, installation, drain field repair and replacement, and septic pump repair. On the well side, we handle pump repair and replacement, 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 Nassau County

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

Fernandina Beach, Callahan, Hilliard, Yulee, Nassau Village-Ratliff.