Progress is reported in the city’s billion-dollar-plus project to rid the world — or at least Jacksonville — of potentially evil septic tanks.
Five lower-income neighborhoods will reap the benefits – free hookups to city sewer lines and removal of their septic tanks, whether they are working well or not.
While the free improvements will increase the value of their property, and thus their net wealth, the homeowners typically will have to begin paying $850 a year for water and sewer service and their property taxes, if they pay any, may go up.
Those who do not connect will have to pay $250 a year as “readiness fee.”
The project is being carried out by JEA. It began in August 2016 when the City Council passed a law calling for the removal of septic tanks. The cost then was estimated at $30 million but it jumped to $100 million in 2021, which required a huge tax increase. Estimates of future costs have increased substantially over the intervening years to more than $1 billion to eliminate all septic tanks that may pose a threat to the environment.
The stated reason for the program was that septic tanks were harming the environment by leaking into nearby waterways. Or might harm the environment – if they were in “flood prone” locations.
Yet, few septic tank owners are cited for harming the environment. In 2022, 31 out of 65,000 septic tanks were failing and none got to the point of being a sanitary nuisance.
Here’s another curious fact. Since consolidation through 2022 the state permitted nearly 96,000 septic tanks in Jacksonville. It already had more than 50,000. Presumably, some of those permitted subsequently were replacements for older ones.
What is more: Some 3,600 septic tank permits were issued between 2016, when the phase-out law was passed, and 2022.
How many of those almost-new septic tanks will be removed?
The state government has a slightly different view of The Threat. The state says; “Onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems, commonly referred to as septic systems, are a safe and effective means of wastewater disposal for 30 percent of Florida’s population. The OSTDS program ensures that the OSTDS is properly designed, constructed, and maintained through permitting and inspection and contributes to safe ground water, which provides 90 percent of Florida’s drinking water.”
It isn’t as if the city has not been replacing septic tanks. The city sewage system has expanded by more than 740 miles since consolidation, but until 2016, homeowners had to pay the cost of hooking up.
JEA says an estimated 60,000 septic tanks remain in the city, and that some 22,000 of them remain in what they call “failure areas.”
In any event, News4Jax recently reported the program is making progress.
The Biltmore and Beverly Hills neighborhoods have been converted to city sewer systems. Next are the Christobel and Riverview neighborhoods. Construction could begin in Christobel within months at a cost of $41.2 million.
To get the free hookups, 70 percent of the residents in affected neighborhoods must approve. Riverview has not yet met that mark. If it does, another 2,400 homes are slated for sewer hookups.
The city’s map of potentially hazardous septic tanks includes areas with some of the wealthiest people in town, in such areas as Ortega Forest, San Jose and Beauclerc. They, too, will get free sewer hookups if the program continues and the city doesn’t run out of money.
