Nassau County · Northeast Florida
Septic & well services in Fernandina Beach
On Amelia Island, a septic design is settled on the parcel rather than by the address. The site evaluation establishes what the lot can take, and the permitted design follows what it finds. A private well raises its own questions, and those turn on that particular well.
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Septic backing up? Call us now.
Sewage in the yard or the house, a tank that won’t drain, or a well with no water. Call and you will get a person and a straight answer about when we can be there.
Working in Fernandina Beach
Around Centre Street and the historic district, lot size and setbacks are the binding constraint. A small lot can run out of room once the separations from the well, the property lines and surface water are taken out of it. Out along Fletcher Avenue, where lots are not squeezed the same way, the constraint is usually what the ground will accept instead. That is a question the site evaluation answers for your parcel, and neighbouring lots do not always come back the same.
Nassau County sits within the St. Johns River Water Management District, but the District is not the office you deal with: it has delegated well permitting to the Nassau County health department, which issues the permit under an agreement with the District. The District keeps wells six inches or greater in outside diameter at land surface for itself.
The well question here has a documented history, and it is not the one people assume. A 1984 USGS study of eastern Nassau County reported chloride concentrations of 20 to 40 milligrams per liter in the upper zone of the Floridan aquifer. Water from a few wells at Fernandina Beach tapping that zone was higher, at 190 milligrams per liter. The study put that down probably to saline water moving up from deeper zones through uncased or improperly-plugged well bores, and not to lateral intrusion. Those are 1984 readings from a handful of wells rather than a description of yours. What they point at is the condition of the bore, and that is something an inspection can look at.
Which aquifer a well draws from is worth knowing, because the two are not the same water. The same 1984 study described the surficial aquifer in that area as thin permeable zones of sand, shell and limestone, with water generally of acceptable quality for most uses except near the coast. It put the upper and middle zones of the Floridan at about 530 to 1,000 feet and 1,200 to 1,700 feet below land surface. That is a 1984 study of eastern Nassau County, not a report on your property. Knowing which one your well sits in changes what a test should look for.
The historic district adds a constraint the rest of the island does not have. Working in tight lots off Centre Street means access matters as much as design — where a truck can physically get to, what can be dug without disturbing what should not be, and how much of a yard has to be opened up. It is worth walking the site before anyone commits to a date.
What the ground does here
Fast-draining sand is not the advantage it sounds like. A drain field needs enough unsaturated soil below it to treat effluent before that effluent reaches groundwater. Sand that carries water away quickly, or a water table sitting close to the surface, cuts into that depth. Soil that drains too fast is a treatment problem rather than a drainage win, and which case a lot falls into is what the evaluation is for.
What customers say
“I quickly received an on-sight evaluation and immediate proposal including firm cost. Plus, I can get the job scheduled in a timely manner rather than 6 weeks out.”
Nearby areas we cover
We work across the rest of Nassau County too — Yulee. Same crew, same trucks.
Further afield: Jacksonville. Or see every area we serve.
Who issues the permit in Nassau County
Which office issues it depends on the county, and on which system you are working on.
Septic permits
Nassau County health department issues septic permits. Florida moved oversight of the onsite sewage program to DEP on 1 July 2021, but permitting moved later — DEP began issuing permits itself in sixteen Northwest Florida counties on 2 January 2025 and added Marion County that July. Nassau has not transitioned.
Well permits
The Nassau County health department issues well construction permits, under its delegation agreement with the St. Johns River Water Management District. The rule chapters are 40C-3 and 62-532 of the Florida Administrative Code. The District still permits wells six inches or greater in outside diameter at land surface.
What we do in Fernandina Beach
Septic work, and the local detail that decides how it has to be built.
Septic
Septic tank pumping
The single job that prevents most of the expensive ones. A tank that is pumped on schedule protects the drain field, and the drain field is the part you do not want to replace.
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Septic inspections
Most inspections we run are tied to a closing date, and a closing date does not move because a tank was hard to find. Book the inspection early enough that a repair is still an option.
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New system installation
New construction, a replacement for a system at the end of its life, or an upgrade a county requires. All three start in the same place: what the soil and the water table on your lot will accept.
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Drain field repair
The most expensive part of a septic system, and the one most often killed by a pump-out that was put off. If the yard is wet and the tank refills fast, this is the conversation.
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Well inspections
A well inspection is usually bought against a closing date, and a closing date does not move because the well turned out to have a problem. Book it early enough that a repair is still an option.
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Well pump repair
No water at all, or pressure that comes and goes. Before anything gets replaced, the job is working out which component failed, because the wrong guess is an expensive one.
Read more →Fernandina Beach septic & well questions
Who issues well permits in Nassau County?
The Nassau County health department, under a delegation agreement with the St. Johns River Water Management District. Nassau County lies within the District, and the rule chapters are 40C-3 and 62-532 of the Florida Administrative Code. The District still issues the permit itself for wells six inches or greater in outside diameter at land surface. The City of Jacksonville is the only local government in the District with an agreement of its own. The other sixteen delegation agreements are with local health departments, and the District also holds a memorandum of understanding with the Suwannee River Water Management District.
Does fast-draining soil make a septic system easier?
Not automatically. Sand moves water away readily, but a drain field also needs enough unsaturated soil below it to treat effluent before that effluent reaches groundwater. Soil that drains very fast, or a water table close to the surface, cuts into that depth. The site evaluation on the lot settles which of those you are dealing with.
Can you work on small lots in the Fernandina Beach historic district?
Yes, though the available space after setbacks often rules out a conventional drain field. Where that is the case, an aerobic treatment unit treats to a higher standard and can frequently be permitted where a conventional system cannot.
Working on a property in Fernandina Beach?
Call and tell us what the system is doing. We will tell you what it sounds like and what it takes to find out for certain.