Duval County · Northeast Florida
Septic & well services in Jacksonville
Duval County is the one place in our service area where the well permit does not come from the water management district. For small-diameter wells here, the City of Jacksonville is the office that issues it — and most people find that out late.
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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 Jacksonville
Jacksonville is not one septic market, it is several. Large parts of the urban core have been connected to sewer for decades, while Arlington, the Westside, Mandarin and the areas out toward Baldwin still run on onsite systems, and the further from the core you go the more likely a property is on a private well as well.
That mix is why septic-to-sewer conversion keeps coming up here in a way it does not in Nassau or Clay. If a line has reached your street, connection may become mandatory, and it is worth knowing where you stand before you spend money replacing a drain field you may not be allowed to keep.
On the well side, Duval sits over two usable aquifers. The surficial aquifer is shallow and cheap to reach, but far more exposed to whatever is happening at the surface. The Upper Floridan sits deeper — commonly somewhere between about 200 and 600 feet across Northeast Florida. It is the more reliable long-term source, and it usually carries more mineral content to treat.
That mineral content is why so much Jacksonville well water smells of rotten eggs. The Floridan is carbonate rock carrying sulfate minerals. Bacteria in the aquifer or in the well casing turn that sulfate into hydrogen sulfide gas, and hydrogen sulfide is the rotten-egg smell. In most cases it is a nuisance rather than a health emergency, and it is treatable. It is a property of the water this county sits on, not a sign that something has gone wrong with your well.
Duval also carries delineated areas — areas Florida law treats as having known groundwater contamination, or as vulnerable —, where additional construction requirements apply to any new well. Whether your address sits inside one is a question to ask at the permit stage rather than later, and it is one of the reasons the city rather than the water management district is the office you deal with here.
What the ground does here
The soil profile and the wet-season water table on the lot set the design. They decide how large a drain field has to be and, on a low-lying lot, whether a conventional gravity system is permittable at all. The wet season is the number that matters, because a lot that percolates beautifully in April can sit near saturation in September. The evaluation is meant to capture the worst case rather than the day someone happened to visit.
What customers say
“Septic tank in home flooding emergency — nobody in Jacksonville would help us except Gator. They came the next day and resolved the emergency, extremely grateful for their service.”
Nearby areas we cover
Jacksonville is our only Duval County page today, but we cover the county. If you are somewhere in Duval that is not listed, call and ask — the answer is usually yes.
Further afield: St. Augustine · Orange Park · Middleburg · Green Cove Springs. Or see every area we serve.
Who issues the permit in Duval County
Which office issues it depends on the county, and on which system you are working on.
Septic permits
Septic permits in Duval County are issued by the county health department. Florida moved oversight of the onsite sewage program from the Department of Health to the Department of Environmental Protection on 1 July 2021. Permitting itself moved later: DEP began issuing permits itself in sixteen Northwest Florida counties on 2 January 2025 and added Marion County that July. Duval has not transitioned, so DEP’s guidance is to keep working with the county health department.
Well permits
Well permitting in Duval is the exception in our area. Wells under six inches in diameter are permitted by the City of Jacksonville Environmental Quality Division under Chapter 366 of the city Ordinance Code and Environmental Protection Board Rule 8, not by the St. Johns River Water Management District, and that applies to construction, repair, modification and abandonment. Duval also contains delineated areas — areas Florida law treats as having known groundwater contamination, or as vulnerable — where additional construction requirements apply.
What we do in Jacksonville
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.
Read more →Septic
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.
Read more →Septic
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.
Read more →Septic
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.
Read more →Wells
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.
Read more →Wells
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 →Jacksonville septic & well questions
Who issues a septic permit in Jacksonville?
The Duval County health department issues it. Oversight of the onsite sewage program moved to the Department of Environmental Protection 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. Duval has not transitioned, so permits still run through the county health department.
Which office permits well work in Jacksonville?
In Duval County it is not the water management district. Wells under six inches in diameter are permitted by the City of Jacksonville Environmental Quality Division under Chapter 366 of the city Ordinance Code and Environmental Protection Board Rule 8. That covers construction, repair, modification and abandonment. Wells six inches or greater in outside diameter at land surface goes to the St. Johns River Water Management District.
Will I be required to connect to sewer in Jacksonville?
Not unilaterally. The JEA and City of Jacksonville Septic Tank Phase Out Program works neighborhood by neighborhood and needs at least 70% of property owners in the project area to consent before it proceeds. Priority areas so far have been Biltmore C, Beverly Hills East and West, Christobel and Riverview.
What does the JEA septic tank phase-out cost a homeowner?
Nothing up front. The program covers installing the sewer pipe, properly abandoning your existing septic system, making the connection, and all associated permits and fees. Once you are connected you pay a monthly JEA sewer charge alongside your existing water and electric bill.
Should I replace a drain field if sewer might be coming?
Find out where your street stands first. If a phase-out project is already committed in your area, a drain field replacement may buy you very little. If it is not, waiting on a failing system is its own risk. This is worth a phone call before it is worth a cheque.
Working on a property in Jacksonville?
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.